Sonic: Evil Reborn Zero
by The Sky Hedgehogian Maestro
Summary: Whatever happened to fun, colorful adventures with cheesy morals, smiling villains, hammy dialogue, and one-winged-angel goliaths to topple? Can we go back to those days? #SERZ
1. The Hero And The Madman

**(1) The Hero And The Madman (Prologue)**

* * *

This is what Sonic lives for.

Adventure.

And _all _of its sexy dangers.

No matter how great or small.

* * *

**[Four Months Ago]**

_**Miles Above Earth... **_

Gears whirl. Pistons sigh. Lasers shriek. Sparks fly. Bullets ricochet. Smoke fades.

The Death Egg IV, a damn fine machine in and of its own might, falls apart. Explosions eat away at its surface and innards- an antacid in soda won't react as strongly. Watch the debris of egg pawns, badniks, mechanical baddies of all sorts, of all kinds, watch all of it orbit and crash down to the surface. The light of the sun illuminates one side while the other is bound by a darkness broken by rapid flashes of fire. And if you look ever so carefully, why you just might see something crazier than this- life forms! Yes, we close in and take a gander at what is- my, what a great chase!

Here comes the Egg-mobile. It lumbers down this long hallway. The hallway itself, as it is scratched by the machine, you see that one side is a line of windows revealing the prime spectator, planet Earth and Earth mocks the egg man's frantic motions. His machine grinds against a- here it comes, _**crash, crash**_, it front-flips, and Robotnik's bald and greasy head rubs against the ground (how it hasn't started a fire!). In its escape, the machine grinds against a wall, tumbles, crashes into another, twirls, plummets 'tween dented pistons, rides the ground, and skips on. A typhoon of sparks follows, splashing against and off of his aggressor.

And his aggressor is Sonic. He leaps from wall to wall and then lands- sticks that landing- on the floor and continues his chase at a seamless pace. Doctor Robotnik abuses every lever and crushes every button to force his machine past its limit to escape. Sweat stings his eyes as his machine begins to fail him. What sting? He feels no sting.

He knows that with every vain attempt at world domination, he risks inviting Sonic's wrath. Eggman- does he dare?- looks back. He can count the teeth in the rodent's grinning mouth.

"Hi! I'm Sonic. Have we met?"

"Gahhh!" Eggman makes a hasty decision- he slams his fist into a big, red button. His seat springs out, and the oval man rolls ahead, leaving the Egg-mobile to crash into the ground. Passing through a rectangle of sunlight, Sonic leaps onto a window and uses his angle to pounce on the adrenaline-high scientist.

Backed to the wall, Eggman turns around, panicked and red-faced- but the elevator door stops his death. A ram into the doors fails to punch through it, and, after falling to the ground, Sonic wipes fragments of shrapnel off of his face. Several jump-steps back, he wraps himself into a ball and rockets through the steel door. Here he begins free fall, and below him is the elevator. Bigger than his thumb when he comes through, as soon as he begins his fall, the car is larger than the tip of his pinky. A deluge of sparks flow from the skidding corners, and, further down the shaft, the elevator car passes through opaque clouds of smoke.

From above, a spark erupts into a fireball, and half destroyed debris pierces the compressed air. Even a toilet from a level above is among the falling objects- and here's a second, a third explosion! The latter punches a hole in the walls, the only thing separating the two warring animals from utter death in space's indiscriminate hands of doom. Further below comes a score more blasts. The car mindlessly ignores all puffs of smoke, continuing its frantic rush downward. As the elevator passes near several windows, it is lit by small cracks of light from the sun. The light filters down the entire way through. Sonic is illuminated each time as well, except that he experiences the light for increasingly briefer moments Once more, he rolls into a ball. His descent is slowed only once as he nears an elephantine break in the shaft- a point where there is _no_ wall, and the tube-like descent is separated in two. The zero gravity just barely affecting him, he drops through the top of the car like a hot knife on butter.

"_Sonic!_" Eggman backs his wall to the door. His face puts Niagara Falls to shame. He kneels at Sonic's feet, hands clasped together. A foot to the head can end it now. Years of aggression, years of harassment, years of adventure- over in one final strike. "Please! I-I promise, I won't bother you anymore! _T-th-this could be a new b-beginning! _A partnership between me and you! Think of it- y-you and me, helping people! J-just let me go, and I'll leave in peace! _Please!_" He nearly gags upon the word 'help.' He does at 'please.'

Sonic throws up his lower lip and rests his wrists on his hips. Even thick-headed _Knuckles _would know better. Eggman has always promised to- but has never followed through on- changing his ways every single time he's backed into a corner. In fact, in one exceptionally extreme case, Robotnik had begged for mercy, only to shatter the world into seven pieces.

"Is _that_ the _best _you can do, Eggman?" Sonic's equanimity is met by Eggman's annihilated nerves. The doctor looks up, then, faster than Sonic can pick up, glances at the ceiling a second time. The light in the shaft dying every other second, Eggman can see, in intervals, blue binary seeping in from the hole. A vicious smile gradually grows.

The glob of digital goo drips down onto Sonic's shoulder, in a manner no different than water from a leaky pipe, and the hedgehog only passingly notices it until it comes down en masse. He falls to his knees. Sonic reaches for Eggman, fully outstretching his spaghetti arm, but the victorious human quickly rises to his feet.

_Ding_. The pressure of the elevator desists. As explosions shake it around, the door's two walls slowly creak away from each other.

Let it fly open!

Machine guns stab into Sonic's personal space. With a smile slapped on his face, Eggman rushes out into a massive control room, only to jump into another egg-shaped flying machine.

"_Attack! Blast that hedgehog to smithereens!_ _Blow it apart, now, now, __**now!**_" The robots mindlessly obey. A dense tsunami of lead blankets the entire elevator room. Eggman cannot tell if Sonic is still alive and in one piece as he looks over his elbow, shielding his ears. His mind happily assumes this, that there won't be anything recognizable. He looks on as bullets ricochet and crash into each other. "Cease fire! _Cease fire! I said __**cease fire!**_" Smoke quickly blossoms out of the elevator as the last of the lead casings patter onto the ground. Does it, it does- the air reeks of gunpowder! Just smell this vomituous air, and see the wispy fingers of smoke swimming away. It is, however, the momentary fading of this irritating odor that signals Eggman to lean out and have a closer look. His excitement is through the roof, until his jaw brings it through the ground.

He sees the digitalized ooze, but he doesn't see anything that suggests a hedgehog was ever there. It doesn't make any sense! Eggman exits the Egg-mobile and runs into the bullet-flooded elevator. After Eggman claps twice, the blob rises from the ground and arcs backwards into a microchip-fashioned card. This is only a minor distraction as Eggman, dazed and confused, stares at the bullet-hole ridden wall and scratches his bald head. Surely the attack didn't...

_**CRASH!**_ All heads about-face too slow to see that Robotnik has disappeared. Eggman throws out a coughy yell as fists drive into his spine. First the hazard doors crack. He's against them, breaking through them. They crack, crack, crack, crack, _**burst**_. A spontaneous debris flurry showers the next room and the scientist is sent three rooms down in a single second with force that would tear any other creature apart. Eggman has become a battering ram destroying his own creation. Then the pressure subsides and Eggman is pushed by inertia. He wobbles on the ground like an egg.

Gently touching the ground tip-toe first is Sonic. Eggman looks up and examines him to his horror- his quills are, yes- they're skywards and golden. Around his enemy is a fire, but not an ordinary fire. This one is sparkling and throws up something akin to sunlight. And his eyes- how red they are! They glow with crimson fury!

"Thought you had me?" Sonic throws. Had Eggman possessed super strength, he would have smashed a hole through the floor, and he's gritting them so hard, his teeth are in danger of breaking. Super Sonic walks for him with his iconic cocky smirk, content with his rescued victory. Every footstep slams into Eggman's ear drums like wrecking balls. He raises his hand, palm towards the hedgehog.

"Don't come any closer." Silent anger drenches his tone, and his blackened, pissed-off rage is backed up with the crack in one of his bifocals.

Without warning, the ground collapses in on itself. Half of the entire hanger comes crashing down. Super Sonic looks around, stunned at this- he combs his mental vocabulary for proper word- this _development_. He takes a step back, then spots Eggman- or at least where the man had once lain. Eggman had descended into a chamber below the hanger, using the maelstrom of debris as cover.

"Eggman!" Sonic runs only for the _entire_ hanger to implode. His muscles acting on impulse, the hedgehog raises his aura and rushes out into space. A massive, five ton slab of metal slams into the zoned section where he had just been standing. He waits for Eggman's next move. Out comes a giant entity covered in a massive, black veil all too similar to the grim reaper. The top of this veil opens up, revealing Eggman in a cockpit.

"Behold! My latest and _grrrreatest _creation! The _Egg Phantom_!" Eggman speaks in an overly boastful tone. Nothing new. Sonic folds his arms, eyes unimpressed by the specs.

_So__** that's**__ what Nik's been working on._ Super Sonic readies himself. The Egg Phantom raises itself, slower than a sloth, before standing off with the super hedgehog. Super Sonic's the first to react, dashing straight into its chest. A crystal bowl in the centre shatters as he blasts into it at light speed. Under them all is the Earth, a spectator to this ultimate showdown.

* * *

"_Gnahahahahaha!_" The Egg Phantom throws a truck-sized fist at Sonic. The golden hedgehog dodges just in time, the edges of the fist ruffling his golden fur. Barrel rolling to the side and sticking a jump on top of the Egg Phantom's black arm, he runs up the arm as he would a ramp; the other arm flies behind Sonic in a failed attempt to flick off the hedgehog. "Grrrr! _Stay still, you filthy, flea-infested rodent!_"

"What's wrong, Mrs. Eggbuttnik? Can't catch a li'l ole hedgehog?" Sonic retorts. Eggman's brow lowers. A toothy smile raises by the same amount, insidious on its own. His finger crushes a hazard-stripe button. Then comes a hushed whirl from below his feet. Super Sonic floats back, throwing his arm behind him. He sneers. Before his eyes, the Egg Phantom undulates, becoming evermore transparent, until it becomes akin to a mass of nearly invisible gel. Its texture continues to undulate, refracting the stars behind.

Super Sonic growls. "So _that's_ your secret, eh?! OK, _bring it on!"_ Already bathed in gold, Super Sonic charges his aura to silver and rockets for the Egg Phantom, rifling as he picks up speed. Nothing. Shooting around and coming back, he attempts to attack the cockpit. Again, the super hedgehog fails. With a mighty punch from the Phantom, the super hedgehog is shot into the distance of space microseconds after passing the head of the beast.

Now he realizes the Egg Phantom lives up to its name- it's become completely intangible! Not impressed. Regaining his posture, golden sparks and wisps undulate and flutter around his body before the energy explodes. His aura sharp and upwards, Super Sonic rockets back for towards the remains of the Death Egg, dodging space debris and meteoroids screaming towards him. Growing in his sights is the Egg Phantom. Once close enough, he slows down and levels with the cockpit.

His aura expands, growing several times the size of the hedgehog himself. Super Sonic pulls himself in, then, with a war cry, explodes his aura. The golden edge of the sphere engulfs the Egg Phantom. Suddenly, the undulation stops and the machine twitches. Electrical sparks sprint up and down its body; small explosions erupt from the points some of the electricity originates from. Jerky motions prevail despite all efforts to control it. Robotnik slams the controls. At that same moment, the bullet Sonic smashes through the cockpit of the Egg Phantom, trailing gold. He comes back again and again and again before the first afterimage even vanishes.

A warning signal flashes in the cockpit. The metaphysical machine is about to explode! Robotnik ejects. A fireball expands before dissipating. Behind it, a parachute comes to form. Robotnik, in a space suit, drifts..

"_Curse you, Son_-" Super Sonic cuts short Robotnik's spit-filled rant. In a strike that would rip a hole in any normal person, Sonic attacks Eggman. Inertia annihilates the chair, sending millions of pieces into the void as Eggman shoots past the edge of sight. Eggman becomes a twinkle. Super Sonic, with a triumphant smirk on his face, watches with scornful eyes. He doesn't take the time to wonder where Eggman's new galactic home might be. Nor should he care.

"Don't mess with the best, Eggcheese! Don't mess with the best!" Sonic brings his energy over his head once more, and lets it shine ever brighter and brighter. At light speed, he rips through the mouth of the _Death Egg IV_. "_Yaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooo!_"

He tears it apart; large sections continue to explode. As if it hadn't been decaying before, the rate of explosions increases many fold until most blasts fuse into each other. Rays of light fire off from within the space station until, at the zenith of smaller scale devastation, the grand moustache of the Death Egg shatters into ten thousand pieces, sparks and flames infesting its innards. All of it falls downward, caught in Earth's grip, and it does nothing more than to reveal the true extent of damage the Death Egg has been wrought internally.

There goes Sonic, speeding over the northern pole of the Death Egg IV. He stops, however, and makes a beeline right through the pole in a sharp downward blast of speed . In what one can see from the gaping mess left by the orbit-bound moustache, the yellow streak tears through it all in fractions of a millisecond. Earth is his next destination. The Death Egg IV rips in half straight down the middle.

X

XX

XXX

XXXX

XXXXX

XXXXXX

XXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXX

XXXXXX

XXXXX

XXXX

XXX

XX

X

The Death Egg IV explodes like a firework going supernova. Bits of the space station fall to Earth like a spring shower while others disappear into the void of space. As Super Sonic flies through the atmosphere, the sun peeking over the horizon as he goes, space debris parallels him almost as fast as he. He makes the best of the circumstances and brings himself towards one slab of burning material, sprinting and leaping for others until reaching earth. Super Sonic lands in a sepia-painted crag-infested wasteland. The remains of a city and an armada of Egg Carriers and Egg-Pawns lay wasted and mired in flames, the flames brightening the amber skies. Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow stand ready to greet Sonic.

"Yeah! You did it!" Tails cries with a bitter smile. Even with two bandaged hands, he still offers one for a high-five- he nearly trips on himself as small shocks of pain ride through his dirt-smothered legs.

"Eggman's gonna be feeling _that _one for a while!" a black-eyed Knuckles adds, giving his friend two pats to the back. Sonic stumbles forward from them, but corrects himself just in time to listen in to Shadow.

"It was chance at best you were thrown into the Doctor's 'Skylab Labyrinth'. But at least you _were_." Even Shadow is battle-scarred, his chest hair being ruffled and so slightly reddened. "Otherwise Eggman may have won." Sonic cocks his head as his grin grows wider. Shadow's nihilistic criticism and reverse flattering flew over his shoulder.

"It was nothin'. Besides, I gotta thank you guys too for keeping Egghead's robots outta that city... mostly." Super Sonic's sanative Chaos power heals the three as they bask in his swath of light. All of their wounds begin to vanish as if sketches removed by a pencil's eraser. "But it was nothin'."

"But Sonic, that has to have been the biggest pounding you've _ever_ given Eggman," Tails sawders. "I think you stopped him for _good_ this time." Sonic shuts his eyes and turns away, failing to hold back a grin.

"Meh. You know him. He'll be back." Sonic stares to the sky. Not frowning, but this is a smile he has, as if relishing the thought of facing Eggman once again. "But man! You gotta hear about how I whooped his butt in space!" A bright, sunny, and awfully yellow-tinted day eventually follows their conversation.

Over.

* * *

The four heroes exchanged a few more words as Sonic waited for his rings to disappear. The rings, the waste of the Chaos Emeralds, are what allows him to say in this Super Saiyan-esque form. Sonic watched with new thoughts already forming in his head as the last three rings fizzled out. He'd rather to never have used it in the first place, but enemies often grow so impressively powerful that, should he dare fight them as he is now- fleshy and blue- he would have been wiped out in seconds, a mass of gelatinous remnants of what was once a hedgehog. And it's because of his reluctance to use this form that he knows and likes the fact that he knows so little about it and it's various secrets. He knows nothing of just how powerful he can become, the limits of the form, or even why he turns gold. But why should he? Even though so many of his enemies and opponents become that strong, Super Sonic is always stronger. Is that not enough to know?

Shadow left first, then Knuckles. Sonic followed Tails.

The two friends arrived back at Tails's Mystic Ruins-based workshop. From the outside, one might believe it to be incredibly humble, even unassuming. The workshop is only part of the young fox's home, but it is large enough for everything the boy genius needs.

It was that pleasant kind of March afternoon. Butterflies danced in the air and dandelions slowly dissolved in the wind. It was the kind of day that could kill a frown on even the most depressed, the most emo, the most misanthropic face.

Sonic's best friend and mechanical genius, Miles Prower, whom most refer to as "Tails", was in the first stages of drawing up the preliminary blueprints of a new kind of scramjet plane he had recently thought up when Eggman began his ill-fated shot at world domination. He was planning to unveil the details of the hypersonic aircraft concept at a later date but couldn't resist showing it off to Sonic. The basics of the plane, however, were to concealed under 45 by 40 feet white sheets Tails had recently bought and dragged into his home. Nothing at that point had actually been built. On several desks were scaled down models of what the vehicle might have looked like, perhaps, if designed by someone with a less honed sense of craft.

Sonic wasn't fully interested at the time. Having erased all presence of hostile robots from over 3 countries, Sonic was still filled with energy and blind with cockiness. After a few minutes of examining his friend's new pride, he had left in search of new adventures.

The origin of robots was his arch-nemesis, Dr. Ivo Julian Robotnik (or, as the man himself puts it, Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik, depending on who's asking), also more humiliatingly known as Dr. Eggman due to his comical shape- believed to be held only because the man must eat a great deal to maintain his monstrously high intelligence. They were left over from the previous adventure Sonic had just wrapped up. Before Sonic could deal the Death Egg IV a death blow, he had to stop the mad mechs from tearing the world apart at its own increasingly fragile seams.

Eggman had been stopped once again. Sonic had intended to relax the only way he really knew how- by running. After all, what could be more relaxing that wind flowing through your hair at the speed of sound? More adventure. So he embarked on what was to be another grand world odyssey in the hopes to make a new adventure if one wouldn't come to him. After running into snowstorm after snowstorm, however, Sonic made the decision to return to the Mystic Ruins for a short time...

A spider web-like trail lie scorched by sheer speed; he didn't even have time to pant as he began touching mach two. This is Sonic's way of telling everyone he's bored. Tails innocently continued work on the plans to his jet, oblivious to his friend's antics. Outside of the unusually thin air, a single odd point of light on the horizon, and the lack of many of the usual tropical bugs and critters, nothing was out of the ordinary.

His eyes were closed. His legs had their own minds. He didn't have a care in the world.

Then the ground disappeared. This stupid mistake fast developed into a near fatal mistake, the kind the hedgehog has never been known for, as Sonic panicked and tried to slow down. By slowing down, the only thing assured was that several protruding, weathered, and jagged rocks protruding out of the water like the devil's fingers had their bloody way with the hedgehog. Tails had not even seen Sonic's mistake. It was Sonic's cries for help that alerted him. The brightness of the day, its cloudless sky,_ its spring freedom_... Oh, how the gods have conspired against him! Fate has delivered a crushing pimp-slap!

Sonic has been crippled!

[Beginning.]

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Sonic **

**Evil Reborn**

**Zero**

**Episode 1**

**The Hero And The Madman**

¤*̈̈*¤.̧̧ ...̧.¤\

\̧. BONUS KUN ,.,\

.\̧.¤*̈̈*¤ .̧̧.̧.¤*

SERZ  
Sonic  
Evil Reborn Zero  
(Theme Song- "Ultraterrestrial", by Clintone)

SEASON ONE

ARC ONE

**Episode 1- The Hero And the Madman**  
I- The Hero And The Madman  
II- Independence Day  
III- Black Heart Angel  
IV- A New Adventure  
Sum.: After Sonic defeats Dr. Eggman, an accident leaves him crippled for four months; Wikke contacts Eggman; Koset crashlands on Earth and allies himself with Sonic and Tails; a military base in Adabat is destroyed.

**Episode 2- Crime Scene Investigation**  
I- Crime Scene Investigation  
II- An Easy Detail  
III- Truth of the News  
IV- A Happy Ending  
Sum.: While investigating the mystery in Adabat, Shadow is attacked and presumably killed by Sonic; Sonic, Tails, and Koset discuss the odd events surrounding the disaster in Adabat; Sonic rescues a Flicky family and finds a massive deposit of thousands of power rings

**Episode 3- Race For The Emerald**  
I- Recovery Op  
II- Typical Chaos Emerald Hunt  
III- Haphazard Hazards  
IV- Getting Your Ass Handed To You By A Ball  
Sum.: Rouge discovers Shadow- and that GUN already knows what happened to him; Sonic and friends leave for Empire City to find the first Chaos Emerald, but are ambushed by GUN and an autonomous ball sent by a fake Sonic; a squad of Eggbots attack a medical base in Adabat; A Sonic doppelganger uses an autonomous ball to fight the Sonic heroes

**Episode 4- Jynxed**  
I- The King's Pawns  
II- Ultra Sonic  
III- Whack That Mole!  
IV- City Escape  
Sum.: Sonic finds the Chaos Emerald, but is ambushed by Eggman; Eggman shows off his mech's new abilities; Sonic uses the Chaos Emerald to transform; Rouge makes the decision to meet with Knuckles, but finds out that another person has already gotten there first; The Master Emerald is shattered

**Episode 5- Subversion**  
I- Android  
II- The Next Emerald  
III- Sensible And Sensless  
IV- The Eggman Empire Strikes Back  
Sum.: Upon returning to Tails's workshop, Sonic and friends are attacked by a squad of robots led by a Sonic Android; The next Chaos Emerald is detected in an ancient freedom fighters base; Knuckles and Rouge forge a pact; Tails announces that there are Chaos Emerald fakes appearing on the radar

**Episode 6- The Eggman Empire Strikes Back**  
I- The Unbeatable  
II- Egg Armada  
III- Tactical Insertion  
IV- Rays Of Light  
Sum.: With Sonic out of the picture, the heroes are stuck fending off against an offensive by Eggman; Knuckles and Rouge team up to search for the pieces of the Master Emerald; Sonic holds his own against a Chrome Mandroid, an immortal liquid metal creation from Robotnik hiding inside a fake Chaos Emerald

**Episode 7- A Symbol of Thrill**  
I- The Tribunes of Rome  
II- No War Till Dawn  
III- History of Conflict  
IV- Super Volcano Escape  
Sum.: A Chaos Emerald is detected on the move in the Illi Badlands, heading towards an active volcano; Sonic and Silver volunteer to procure the Emerald, but their chase winds up dragging on for longer than expected; a government plot emerges to close in on Sonic and friends; Koset learns more about the Sonic heroes's conflict history with Eggman; Sonic's second state ultra form throws off enough energy to catalyze the eruption of a volatile volcano, putting himself and Silver in a precarious situation

**Episode 8- Waking Up From A Dream**  
I- Even Heroes Break Laws


	2. Independence Day

**Episode 1: The Hero and the Madman**

**(2) Independence Day**

* * *

The magic and life of spring gave way to the man-eating consuming humidity of mid summer. Flowers entered in mid-life, and the tropical trees should have been at their greenest. Four months have passed since Sonic's folly. His luck _had _gone from bad to worse. When recovered from the rocks, Tails had discovered that Sonic's left leg had been shattered to pieces. This was a _horrible _setback for the hedgehog. This could have meant his entire leg would need to be amputated!

How dreadful a thought! _Sonic. The world's fastest __**hopping **__hedgehog, capable of __**hopping **__at __**almost **__half the speed of sound, if squinting hard enough and being generous._ _He's so fast, you can't see him if you're blind!_

There lay Sonic, in a bed inside his best friend's workshop in the Mystic Ruins, crippled for the entirety of his annihilated summer- annihilated isn't even a strong enough word to describe it all. By the dawn of summer, let it be known that, although pain no longer racked his body, the pain of knowing his freedom had been lost was just as disabling. It had not been _all _bad, of course. Sonic has been able to avoid amputation altogether. Although his left leg was completely useless for the first few days, it has gotten better and Sonic has been able to run again.

Tails was even optimistic that, before long, and despite every conceivable odd going against what's even possible, Sonic should soon be back to normal, and our tale begins at the latter end of this prediction. But until now, the hedgehog's life has taken a simplistic- and_ unbe__**liev**__ably _boring- turn. In the proverbial meantime, Sonic and Tails have had plenty of bonding time and a few of Sonic's friends have stopped by to visit. Sonic also discovered Tails's most secret obsession and lent his friend a few friendly chuckles. And to lift his friend's mood, Tails led Sonic on an exhibition-turned-adventure in the ancient Echidna ruins early on in the hedgehog's recovery, where Sonic learned that, while it hurt like living hell, he could still spin dash in a cast and even improvise in order to enjoy the fruits of unbridled wacky adventure. After all, this is Sonic the Hedgehog. One injury, even to his most important asset, could never stop him from enjoying the marvelous excitement wrung from adventure. Nevertheless the constant pain he received from his injury, on top of the delayed reaction time caused by said pain, _did_ slow him down for some time.

None of this could ever detract how so much of this time had been spent- avoiding a possible aftershock and another month or two spent in a cast and memories of how much pain it had been to embark on a journey while crippled, Sonic has been relegated to the role of couch potato.

Friendly words, sappy dramedy, and months worth of cheesy jokes and video games aside, it is only now that Sonic begins to mull over questions he has, surprisingly, not thought of before.

* * *

**[PRESENT DAY]**

* * *

And so we begin with the hedgehog doing a series of leg stretches inside the main chamber of the workshop's workspace. Upon finishing, he hits the path to the door, but then stops and walks over to a recent add-on, that of an arch window.

As he passes him, Sonic begins to his friend, "Hey, Tails," in a tone that is filled to the brim, overflowing even, with boredom. He has felt like an eight-year old on a rainy, electricity-deprived Saturday for months now. Tails quickly turns from several large papers of blueprints to his friend, who is sitting with his hands clasped together behind his head, eyes closed.

"Yeah?" Sonic pauses for a moment as his head tilts ever so slightly higher. He smiles as he daydreams about running free along an infinite plain of green grass, rolling hills, and rocky towers once again.

"How'd that exchange go?" he asks, flicking away a few dust bunnies that managed to find their way to the sill. Tails sets down a small, six-inch long, light saber-esque device he had just picked up no more than a second ago.

"Just fine! The Uekawa Bank manager thanked me for the Chaos Emerald and the anti-matter gadgets. I think he said something about putting one on an armored van," the young genius, Tails, replies, disappearing under the floor and hiding inside a large cube covered in a massive white sheet, mini-plasma knife in hand.

"Did you get anything outta it?" Sonic continues, sticking his head in the staircase and into the vast chamber.

Tails wipes the sweat off of his forehead and reaches for a glass of water as he emerges from under the sheet. "I didn't ask for anything." He grabs a massive monkey wrench and begins back towards the white box. "They needed it badly, like for real."

"Weird how a single bank gets robbed 500 times in a year!" The hedgehog tosses a small power ring in the air, catching it repeatedly. "Anyways, I've been thinkin.' Strange that... Eggman hasn't even come outta _hiding_. No scouts, no droids, not even a _peep_." Sonic looks out a new window at the greyish-blue waters before him. The choppy seas dance under an equally bleak sky. The air is thick with humidity. The only rebel seems to be some sort of odd and out of place star shining out at sea. He refuses to conform; he refuses to let the melancholy world steal his defiant smile.

Tails thinks about Eggman's inactivity as well. "Huh... now that you mention it, that _is _pretty odd," Tails replies, himself curious, as he scratches his head. He smiles at his friend and goes back to work. In the early days of the injury, Tails considered hiding Sonic's condition from Eggman. Several ides later, he hadn't even thought of it. Perhaps it was the urgency and tragedy of Sonic's injury that took his mind off of it. Perhaps he just refused to let the thought pass through his head. But once he began thinking, there's no denying Eggman's lack of activity during Sonic's most vulnerable moment ever is bizarre.

Sonic is a bit anxious today. Ever since his fall, fate has given him nothing but sardonic slaps to the face. Today is no different. The United Federation is celebrating its Independence Day. The parades are expected to be the largest in history, and a fireworks display in Central City is going to be one for the record books. Sonic would have loved to attend. After all- free chili dogs, all day, all you can eat.

But no. He has to_ sit_ in this stinkin' house for _another_ stinkin' day while _all_ of his stinkin' friends get to have fun. Perhaps not put as rudely as that, but with the same amount of frustration nonetheless. Instead of complaining about the darkness, Sonic figuratively lights a candle as he walks outside and prepares to test his speed once again, the first time in over two hours.

"Mehhh, 'think I'll head off to the Silver Valley," he informs, stretching his arms over his head. Although the odds are microscopic of it happening again, Tails is still floored by Sonic's destination choice.

"That's where you wanted to go when you _broke your legs!_ Be careful!" Tails warns from his post. Sonic wants to write Tails off, to just turn off his ears to his best friend's cries. "If you're going out, can you pick up a technical paradrop GUN is sending me?"

"Ah, that's today?"

"Yeah, in the Lost Forest!" From the sounds of it, Tails is screwing something in.

"OK, I'll keep an eye out for it." As he continues walking out, he instantly runs into a wall, a wall of air. "Who turned on the A/C?" he jokes. The air does not distract the hedgehog. He prepares to warm up for a routine run.

_Shhhhhh_...What's that? It sounds like a... no wait, it's getting louder...and louder... It's coming from the direction of the sea! Sonic turns. His ears perk. His eyes scan the sky madly. Nothing but a cold and ugly blanket of grey. It might be the materials drop Tails is- no! The whole ground is rumbling! Why does the earth shake?

No, wait! Something's coming out of the sky. Here it comes. It's a missile. No... no, it's a _meteor_.

A violet-hot fireball, miles in the sky, engulfed in flames that Sonic can feel even from this distance, rockets over Sonic's head and into the mountains afar at hypersonic speeds. Had he not looked up at the nanosecond he did, he certainly would have missed it. The sound of it crashing, yes, literally _crashing _through the atmosphere is almost as loud as the actual impact, like an armada of jumbo jets flying on their afterburners.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

_**BAAANG!**_ The explosion is ear shattering and sudden like a revolver going off in a library.

A jolted Tails, startled by the sound, quickly runs out of the workshop.

"What was _that?!_" he cries. To his amazement, Sonic, at the fastest he's run in months- fourmonths- sprints in the direction of the Lost Forest. Tails, at first too stunned to move, forces himself to run after him. Slow, at first, then ever faster... and faster...yet never able to keep up with Sonic! He even spins his tails for an extra boost of speed, but is incapable of matching Sonic's incredible velocity. Slowly, the distance between the two begins to widen. "S-Sonic! Wait for me!" He waves for Sonic to stop, but the friends continue into the forest with no dying disparity.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

Sonic arrives at the center of the Lost Forest. Fast growing in his line of sight is a clearing at least two miles wide and twice as many miles long The smoke tower is amazingly large for an impact that has just occurred. It rises like a headless phoenix into the darkening clouds above. Sonic is frozen in awe at first, but is then hit by a wave of excitement. Grand adventures always, _always, _follow events like this. Tails stops at the position Sonic just left and wastes no time nor breath beginning to run again. He finds Sonic at the perimeter of the clearing. The excitement in the hedgehog's eyes collapses into horror. Tails walks slightly in front of Sonic, trying himself to make sure his eyes aren't deceiving him.

"Tails... d-do you see what I see?" Sonic's words are tripping over one another in amazement. Tails looks at the center of the crater. Amid nothing but broken ground and small grains of debris, they spot a green hedgehog. Shock smashes into the young fox's body like a tsunami.

The two wordlessly exchange urgent looks. Sonic and Tails run to the center as fast as they can, collectively hoping the hedgehog is not dead, and check him for injury. They fear the worst. No blood, no gore. He's just unconscious. Somehow, this hedgehog, after surviving the equivalent of what seemed like a nuclear blast, is simply unconscious. To his right are the only visible remains in the whole crater– scattered relics and sleek chrome orbs.

The two work together to pick up the hedgehog and bring him back to Tails's workshop.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	3. Black Heart Angel

**Episode 1: The Hero and the Madman**

**(3) Black Heart Angel**

* * *

The virility, the passion of his work is unrivalled for any project he has ever toiled on. Sweat drenches his face too, his moustache, and his very working soul! Hell should freeze over should he ever leave the machine, his body or eyes. His arms move as if they had minds of their own, grabbing tool after tool, gadget after gadget. His skin is pale enough to see through.

This one man puts an entire assembly line of workers and robots to shame.

Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Although once despising the name, he has since seriously adopted the moniker 'Doctor Eggman' out of the woefully failed belief it would stop the rest of the world from calling him the name in spite and sarcasm. Coming in at over six feet, the man is pushing the limits of what might be considered to be obese. Already bald, the man dons a campy moustache that shoots sideways from his lip to well past the edges of his face. His eyes hide behind a pair of jade hazard goggles, and his hands are fitted into white gloves of a substance the man himself most likely made. He has a hand-woven loose-fitting orange jacket complete with subtle bionic and bio-electric implants over a black leotard, a thing that places him well within a transhumanistic category for the doctor exceeds any normal man in almost any regard.

_Shrrrip! Tarruuuun! Tit! Tut! Clang! _The screams of mechanics echo throughout his laboratory. Fellow subordinate robots are in almost a highly rushed frenzy as their master, racing to input data into interconnected computers or bring Eggman more tools. The defective, the lazy, and the incompetent are snatched and taken beyond the black rooms of whatever sinister laboratory this insane man has holed himself in. No one asks what happened to them.

His expressions are solid and emotionless. As sparks fly, his face becomes a poor mirror.

Something, _something blue_, is reflected in his eyes.

Dr. Eggman has not forgotten his crushing and absolute defeat at the hands of Sonic. From the deadly temples of the Regal Ruins to the urban sprawl of Westopolis to the broken parkour of Sora City to mechanical madness of the Death Egg IV, he watched as his most prized, detailed world-domination plot to date fell apart before his very eyes. Then he had to be extracted from an asteroid. His utter downfall is what drives him now.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~**One Day Before Cras****h**~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo

It is an unusually dark and moonless night in the Southern Mountains. Dwelling within the arêtes, Dr. Eggman is working with the usual energy and determination that has driven him since the beginning of his latest work.

A small, half round, half-jagged robot rolls up to Eggman, carrying a very small laser on a platter. Eggman snatches the laser, then uses it to weld two parts of synthetic skin together. Another, identical, robot rolls up to Eggman, this time carrying three extremely tiny dirty-silver balls on a similar platter. Eggman grabs all three and, with careful precision, implants each of the three into sockets barely bigger than the balls themselves.

For the first time in what may be months, a smile creeps across Eggman's shiny, wrinkled face.

"_Oh ho ho ho! _My wonderful creation, you are now _96 percent complete_!" Eggman stands up, fists on his hips, and unleashes a chuckle so dirty, it would take fifty washerwomen to clean it up. The chuckle begets a laugh. It echoes throughout the dark corners of his sprawling base. "V is going to be ecstatic when he learns how soon you shall be done! This and the other Comettes are _sure _to be a knock out birthday present for that loon." Eggman stands and scruffs his moustache. "Far, far more superior to those 'Rockettes' by many exponential factors. You, my luckiest of children, alone should suffice... but! I have a duty."

In the chilled world outside, as twirling gusts of snow are born and die in the same second, a myriad of security cameras twist their necks searching for any threat to their creator. The conformist rainbow of Egg Pawns, badniks, and Egg Gunners all patrol their programmed paths in clockwork step.

Black afterimages shoot beyond the stone walls of the outer base. What cameras that are brushed by its presence are subsequently shattered. In fact, as soon as the entity passes anything electrical or mechanical, it turns off or stops working. An entire legion of Egg Pawns and other Eggman robots stand to face the being, only to fall, deactivated, as it passes them. Eggman works, oblivious to the events unfolding hundreds of feet above him. His only goal is to get his greatest creation onto its feet and into the world.

Tools clatter unto the pale tile floor the second the banshee wail of the alarms explodes from the mouths of intercoms and sound systems.

"Doctor, doctor! Initial scans of the area have confirmed the presence of an intruder. All external and seventy percent of our internal defence systems have been rendered inoperable by way of electromagnetic pulse." it says in digital monotone, certainly a robot in its inhuman droll. From a half a mile away one could still hear the throbbing of a vein on Eggman's head.

"_Whaaaat?_" he shouts. Surely _Sonic_ could not have discovered his location! He knows G.U.N., the Guardian Units of Nations, had been following vague hints. But Sonic!

"Doctor, your course of action?" the robot asks. However, it receives no answer. With a loud '_CLANG_!', Eggman slams a wrench into the keyboard and growls.

"After so long without any trace of that meddling hedgehog... Four months... Four months without any footage of him... Why _now?!_" In a rage, he slams the robot's round head, and an attachment falls over its eyes. It tumbles to the ground. A fourth robot, this one a bit larger than the rest, comes into the room as the third is taken away.

"The security protocols require an immediate command." This voice is no less monotonic than the last. Eggman looks down, wrists lying on the sharp edge of the workbench.

"Is there any information on this entity?" he asks, morose and with a pinch to the bridge of his nose.

"Cameras have confirmed that it is entirely black." Eggman looks up, a bit surprised by this information. Perhaps he was too quick to judge. Perhaps his intruder must not be Sonic, but another hedgehog. Of course. He simply judged too quickly. But either way, this means peril for his creations.

"Anything else?" he asks dryly, rubbing his moustache. The robot pauses for but a moment.

"The invader has a recorded speed of over _9,000 miles per hour_."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

Eggman groans. His head is throbbing in pain. The world is a blur. He looks around. All of his worker robots are lying on the floor and the lights are blown out. Funny, he can't seem to recall much of- _**What is that?!**_

Eggman gasps and shrieks as him scoots back on the floor_. A figure in black stands before him_. It stares at Eggman. No eyes. No face. Just a blank, humanoid figure. Eggman rubs his eyes. Surely he's not seeing what he think he is.

He is!

The black being slowly raises its hand, and the silhouette of a finger points at Eggman. The world stops. Eggman misses a heartbeat. He can no longer breathe. No. Breathing is a forgotten concept.

"Do I scare you?" it asks a deep, almost god-like booming voice. Eggman, acting on an impulse, winces. A moment passes before he comprehends what the being has said. An elephant is removed from his back as he begins to speak.

"Who..._who are you_? _What _are you?" The black surrounding the being suddenly fades away. In its evanescence is an equally black cloak. However, this time the entity has a hedgehog-like face. One eye is hidden in absolute darkness. Most of its head is covered by the shroud.

"Surely you jest, man!" He laughs. "I am Wikke." Eggman is still too scared to move. Wikke puts down his arm. One could say he walks to Eggman, except that he does not exhibit the usual manner of walking. Instead, he glides above the floor and "slides" to Eggman. Behind Wikke are black afterimages.

Eggman backs up again. His heart begins to race again. Never before has he felt such dread, such a feeling of helplessness and fear. All of his robots are destroyed. _**Nothing**_ can save him now. And then it ends. Some form of realization washes over him. No longer does apprehension eat at him. Instead, something that feels like frustration takes over. He sighs and stands erect before folding his arms.

"Hhheh... Pitiful man you are, Robotnik. Hhhaving wasted so much of your time on this." Wikke's head turns toward Eggman's prized creation in a quick, nanosecond jolt, faster than what any human can do without snapping his or her neck in many places. He glides over to it. A smile. It grows. And grows. And grows. It is truly ear to ear. His one eye opens wide. He turns to Eggman.

"What do **you **want?!" Eggman screams, this time without fear. Only stern and frustrated anger. "What does _she _want?"

"_You_."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

"_Understand_?" Wikke asks in a voice so low, it is almost unintelligible. "Don't bother me with the details of why." His one hedgehog styled eye, with one demonic, red pupil on the left, and a reptilian green one glowing from behind the darkness covering the right, throws Eggman a devilishly dark stare. Eggman fails to stutter once in his reply, for his voice has returned to its general deviousness.

"Yes .And don't forget the first one made either."

"Good..." Wikke scans the room. It's dark. Empty shadows hide in the corners. Black silhouettes of broken robots, machinery, and fixtures fill the claustrophobic space in between the darkness-ridden walls.

A hand is raised. A black light forms in its palm. The false light expands. Its violet glare reflects off of Eggman's face as he backs up.

"Hey! You'd better not try anything funny!" he warns. It falls on deaf ears.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

Eggman stands, mouth agape, jaw dropped. His stare is blank. He had not even seen an explosion, nor did he ever remember escaping. The stunned man looks at what was once his mountain base. There _is _no mountain base. There is no _mountain._ The range simply _stops_ where the base once was, with snow already packing on top of the cleared land. In a backdrop of snow covered mountains and hills, the full moon's glare shining on fresh snow while the moon itself occasionally hides behind wandering, dark indigo clouds, the presence of a plain of dust- no trace of what was once there, no protrusions- seems out of place enough to warrant a government conspiracy.

Staggering at this sight, Eggman doesn't even care that Wikke is breathing more heavily than one might suggest a being capable of doing this would. "I-I... What w-was that for!?" Eggman screams, pulling at his moustache.

"The global military peacekeeping force, I forget their name- G.U.N. is it?- was quite close to locating you. Hhhece auce thes, Erobotnekus," is the reply Wikke gives as he nudges his head towards a juxtaposed mountain. Eggman looks at what has this one intrigued and sees, ever so faintly, the sight of GUN beetle drones.

"I see... Still, Wikke, I doubt they would have presented any real threat to me. I still had two more payments on that base, and _they won't _be happy to learn it has been destroyed."

"Of course I know, Robotnik. Hhhowever, for reasons that are not within the details presented to either of us, there was no other alternative than to leave no evidence. Mally claimed their hands were tied, and the Aristocracy forced a move on us all. "

"Mally? Is that what _you _call her? And how could the War Machine no-" A secure case is dropped in his heads haphazardly."_B-b-be careful with him_,_ you fool!_" Wikke turns around, his feet leaving the ground. Eggman runs after him, but flinches back when the cloaked hedgehog suddenly turns back around and forms a deep purple sphere around the man. Eggman finds himself paralysed. The sphere immediately rushes towards Wikke.

Once enveloping the two beings, Eggman finds himself able to move again. Wikke forces Eggman and himself forward at blinding speeds.

"G.U.N. is currently..." Wikke takes but a moment to peer over each shoulder, "_incomplacent._ From you, I need to know if you hhhave any other bases of operations."

"What?"

"Do you hhhave another base ready for use?" Wikke weakly asks. Eggman goes silent.

"Ready for use? Hmm... I would have preferred if the Commodore gave me fair warning before telling you to trash the place, because I just don't think so..." Eggman strokes his whiskers as he thinks. "There's one that's entirely incomplete, so that won't work... I have another one in the Western Sea that's _almost _finished. However, the only one I can recall that hasn't been claimed by GUN or destroyed by Sonic and his meddling roaches is..."

"You may speak whenever you decide to, Robotnik."

"Yes! Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. It's located in a desert about three thousand miles east from here." The sphere, in the blink of an eye, makes a ninety degree turn east. Eggman reactively stumbles a bit, only to realize inertia is non-existent in the sphere. "But I can build a new one in no time! Or better yet, we can use the one that is almost complete. I_ never_ make repeat performances!"

"I would not normally care..." Wikke does not look at Eggman. Eggman follows his lead. "But time is my nemesis on this occasion, and the one you mentioned happens to be closest to a Serdist Sigil I need to use." Repeatedly, Wikke turns his head back towards the horizon behind. "And also it would prove to be quite the barren space."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

Eggman, upon gazing at it, just for one second, is hit by tsunamis of memories of his discovery of his grandfather's "ultimate weapon", Project Shadow, the ARK, meeting Rouge the Bat, and so much more. It has fallen from grandeur, and he presumes that the inside must have long been overtaken by whatever desert forces wanted their way with it.

It has been at least two and a half years since then and so much more has occurred. He knows that he would have never returned had it not been for Wikke. But why here? Why now? And, perhaps most importantly, _why?_

Eggman is set down on the sand. Like a drill sergeant, he examines the historic base. His "secret" bases tend to have short lifespans thanks to frontal assaults made by the Sonic heroes, and when not destroyed by them, they're reclaimed by GUN or other foreign militaries. In this case, his secret base held up to its title and has not been found since the skirmish here so long ago.

Before Eggman can utter a syllable, Wikke disappears. Eggman blinks. He looks around. Nothing but sand and starlit skies.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	4. A New Adventure

**Episode 1: The Hero and the Madman**

**(4) A New Adventure**

* * *

Groaning. More of this pained groaning, and it comes from, yes, it comes from the green hedgehog! Two heads quickly turn and stare on. Rubbing his forehead, the emerald fur hedgehog forces his eyes to open and, once succeeding overpowering these muscles, sits erect and attentive.

"No.. No... Oh god... no... How long have I been out... _How long have I been out?!_" He sits erect and faces the others. His fur is styled long enough for the hedgehog to sit on. It's a lip at the top that comes down, with two skyward bangs by his shoulders that reach high enough to his muzzle. The whole thing ends as a spike at the bottom, over his tail- all of this being much like a heart. Most striking to Sonic is that his eyes are black- most anthros on Earth don't have black eyes. His glove is shoddy and plain, as well as his shoes.

Sonic walks up to him and in his usual optimistic tone, says, "Hey." But the green hedgehog is too deep into despair and regret. A metallic clang. His right hand, balled into fist, smashes into a desk. Splinters fly as the desk breaks into half.

"I can't _**believe**_ this! And it didn't even come from him! It was just a terrestrial weapon... and yet I still allowed myself to be struck. How could I have been _that _careless?!" Tails jumps back as a flashlight-like object drops to the floor. Eyes running over it, the fox stoops down and clasps it. Another pair of eyes, these roofed by a bent and aggressive brow, meet his actions. "You... Tell me... how long have I been out?"

"We-" Tails, putting the object next to the hedgehog, tries to open his mouth to continue, but this agitated stranger spares the fox no time.

"_How long?!_" he screams, distressed. Tails winces as the hedgehog raises his voice.

"_F-five days_, sir!" Tails is shaking in his shoes. Sonic steps up, visibly displeased with the hedgehog's behaviour. Much to his friend's relief, Sonic stands between the fox and this new hedgehog.

"_Yo!_ You can't just yell at _Tails _like that!" The hedgehog's tired eyes connect with Sonic's. They become infuriated again.

"_Don't you realize __**we all could be **__**dead?!**_" Sonic is silenced, taken aback. "If Wikke made _any_ progress-!"

"What's _he_ blabberin' about?" Sonic whispers to Tails. The latter shrugs.

"Agh. Don't worry about it." Sonic and Tails both stand up to him.

"First you practically wave your fist in Tails's face, and now you're sayin' don't worry? D'ya mind tellin' me what the heck's goin' on here? Are you messin' with us or-"

"OK... OK... Let's see... They haven't come yet. I can't feel their energy. We're safe."

Sonic, looking up and shrugging at the same time, asks with an snark attitude, "Yeah, dude, not like I need to know or anything, but... what's your name?"

"My na-" the hedgehog begins, almost taken aback by Sonic's request," My name is of no importance!" To this Sonic cocks his head to the side and places his wrists on his hips, eyes beginning to droop and mind beginning to turn.

"Yeah, um, it sorta _is. _We can't _help_ you if we don't _know _you." The hedgehog quiets. He sighs.

In a low and morose tone, he says, "My apologies. I should not have allowed myself to explode into such a violent and needless outbu-"

"_**Name.**_"

He hesitates for a moment, realizing he's let his mouth take the role of his mind. "Koset (Koh-Set). My name is Koset. K, O, S, E, T, in your alphabet. But if you knew this world's situation, you'd understand that it isn't important!"

"Why?" Sonic returns. "And for what? _What?_ _What_ is wrong with you?"

"Urg...Ok, never mind. I guess we do have time, if I've been out for that long and nothing major's happened." Koset folds his arms. His hand shines and glares in the light as he rubs his forehead.

"What happened to your hand?" Tails asks.

"I'll... tell you in a minute. I just need something-"

"You okay, bro?"

"Just a headache. I've had it for years now. D-don't worry about it." Sonic laughs at this.

"No wonder you were so ticked, bro! Every time I get a headache, _everyone_ knows I get cranky. I'll search Shen-Long for a remedy!" Sonic disappears, not even leaving a wake. Koset is left stunned, mouth agape.

"Uh, what-... wait, what was, where did Sonic g-" Sonic reappears in the room.

"Nope." He throws down several dumplings. "But I did find a chili dog dumpling!" In one foul swoop, he downs ten dumplings. "Nice." Koset sends him another round of stunned looks before snapping out of it.

"T-this isn't the time to be enjoying food!"

"_Anytime's _a good time to eat, man!" Sonic flicks a dumpling straight into Tails' mouth. "So listen. I'm the fastest guy this side'a Mars! Sonic the Hedgehog's the name."

"Fastest. Hmph." Sonic steps to the bed and turns his shoulder to Koset.

"What. You think you're faster than me?" Koset quickly turns.

"Don't put words in my mouth!" But Sonic refuses to take it.

"Kinda hard not to do if you don't say anything." That head shake Koset just did, it suggests he may be... confused. Confused, perhaps, without a great enough palette for estimation of confusion. His eyes, they don't speak anything but a blunt and plain curtness.

"Listen!" Tails opens his ears to Koset.

Sonic? No. He walks up to the window to stare at the crashing waves and, drooping his eyelids, asks, "So, lemme guess. Your older and more powerful brother killed your family and you want revenge. But he's back and you have to use your newfound abilities to defeat him, and-"

"Sonic, _**what **_are you talking about?" asks Tails, who promptly gives his head a scratch.

"Or, oh! I know! I'm the chosen one, and you're here to tell me that only _I_ can save the world! And that I- and only I- can use some long-lost power of the Chaos Emeralds to defeat a re-awakened ancient evil before it tears the Earth apart! That, or-or _your homeland! _I have the power to save your homeland! Or are you my long-lost brother? Cousin? Fraternal twin?" For this last one, Sonic digs his way under Koset's face. "Are you my daddy?"

Koset folds his arms, his eyes unlevelled in what might be disdain or pity. "Son-... So-S-Excuse- Miles, excuse me. Is your friend reacting to powerful mind altering substances?"

"Uh-wha'?"

"Drugs. Is he on drugs?" Tails and Sonic hit the floor.

"Ah! _Duuuuude!_"

"You said it yourself- it's hard to not put words in your mouth if you don't say anything, and you haven't said anything relevant at all. I don't have a brother, my parents passed away naturally, I'm not related to you, and no, you're not some sort of chosen one!" Sonic puts his hand on his chin in a tweed.

"...Are you an all-powerful god? A messenger to warn us of incoming doom? Or-or maybe Shadow's long lost cousin project?"

"Look, you-you're missing the point. The person in question that I have been _looking for_, his name is Wikke. He's the reason I'm like this." Koset raises his hand. "But I'm not here for revenge. The loss of my hand is nothing to me. And it's not because of him that I crashed. Heh, actually, it's embarrassing, the true reason." Sonic has his wrists on his hips, head cocked, mouth without an expression, and eyelids lowered, all of this offering us his mood.

"Ooookay, so who's Wikke? And what's wrong with'im?" There is a moment of silence. At first, Koset is fed up, but he shakes his head in defeat, then in despair. "He the bad guy?"

"I can't tell you- your name is, I'm saying this right, _Sonic_, correct? Yes, I can't tell you, Sonic. Not right now."

"C'mon. Can't help ya if you don't say anything!" Sonic twists his ear, trying to figure out what's so scary about someone named Wikke. He walks to a window and looks out, then walks back to Koset. "Does he want the Chaos Emeralds?" Koset quickly looks up and then at Sonic.

"Chaos Emeralds? You have Chaos Emeralds on..." Again, Koset shakes his head and closes his eyes. Sonic's sardonic expression deteriorates rapidly. "So Wikke misbehaved? Nothing's been destroyed in giant balls of fire? No mass genocides?"

"_Whoa, what?!_" Koset doesn't reply. Sonic and Tails look at each other and exchange silent nods.

"Wait, I remember something he said... Something about the... the..." He clenches his eyelids shut as he rips Wikke's words out of his mind and out his mouth. He can't do it. Sonic breaks with Tails. He tries to consider his options. This is a great time to track down all of his friends to help him. If this Wikke character is as evil as Koset claims he is, there's no chance anyone'll go down without a fight. "Sorry for my rudeness. If you understood what I know, you'd be just as-" he begins at a thousand miles per hour.

"_Chill out_, bro! We'll help you deal with this Wikke guy." Koset jumps out of the bed. "How'd you get here anyway? You said you were embarrassed about being shot down? Why'd you go down?" Sonic asks, neither too gentle nor too blunt. Koset lets out a small, exasperated sounding sigh.

"I just lost control, that's all," is Koset's reply.

Sonic shakes his head just as his eyes close. "You don't look like the kind of guy who'd bail _that _epically." He points to Tails. "By the way, this kid's only nine, but he could fly an _asteroid _if he wanted to. If you need help again, I'm sure he'd be happy to give ya a lift." As he says this, he ruffles the fur on the top of Tails's head, receiving a smile in return.

Koset looks as if he has nothing more to say. "I really can't say any more. I'm just... sorry." He turns away, then places his head back on the pillow. "And it's not because I know more than I'm letting on. The truth is, I just don't know all the facts right now. At least, about Wikke. About going down, I admit, I wasn't truthful- but trust me. I don't want to tell you why I crashed. For a good reason at that."

'Why not?' Tails wants to ask, but he brings himself to respect Koset's secrecy.

"So is that it?" Sonic asks. "Some psycho wants to blow us all up and rule the universe with that good ol' iron fist? If that's you're problem, you've come to the right place, mate!" Even Tails is beginning to sweat drop at his friend's bizarre performance. "We're specialists in galactic tyrant problems."

"Sonic, you didn't hit your head in that fall, did you?"

"Tails, I sorta hit my _everywhere._ "

"I'm sorry." Both hedgehog and fox gasp at Koset's stoic response. "I'm sorry. I- I don't really know what Wikke really wants. His true mission is unknown, and I wish I knew what it was. That's what I meant when I said I couldn't tell you. I can't tell you what I don't know myself."

"Yeah, nice way to start an alliance," Sonic says with a sigh. "So you don't know what Wikke wants, but you know he's gonna destroy the world. But you don't know what he wants or what he's gonna do- 'cept destroy the world. B-but you don't know what he's gonna do! The only thing you know he's gonna do is destroy the world. Did I forget anything?"

"No, no, Wikke's not a good guy. That I can tell you for certain. However, why he's doing what he's doing is a mystery, but it can't be good simply because he's helped to do it before. And by the way- Wikke's not the-"

"How are we supposed to know _you're_ not a spy?" Sonic asks, but a smile on his face tells to Tails that he's just joking. If Koset understood or just caught his sarcasm, he shouldn't reply the way he does.

"I understand that I didn't greet you the greatest way in the world, but you have to understand that it's important we prevent Wikke from doing whatever he was carried out to do. Whatever this may be." Once again he rubs his forehead. "If we get the chance, we must kill him. Although I strongly doubt it, if he does prove more than what we're capable of, then we at least need to goad him to tell us what his mission is."

"Sonic?" Sonic steps off for a moment while the two anthros- that is, Tails and Koset- look at him with the expectations of a reply.

He turns to Koset. "Sure, we'll help." Jagged sounds of metal whir out the door. Sonic answers. His nose sticks into the barrel of a Vulcan machine gun. He is nonchalant, even drooping his eyes and putting his wrists to his hips. "Well, shoot." Koset quickly takes to his feet.

"What's wrong?" He grabs something on his side and keeps his hand planted there.

"Tails, I thought you said you reprogrammed those droids!" Sonic kicks the door closed, and Tails stands up. He scratches the back of his head and peeks out the curtains, confirming to his own eyes that the droids are out there.

"Oh, er... I-I did. They were supposed to hunt you down right now! And I mean _right now. _We just kinda got caught up with Ko."

"Wait, _'Ko!?_'"

"Ah, that's right. Hey, Ko, wanna see me do somen' cool?" He's outside before finishing the sentence.

"Wh-where did 'Ko' come from?!" Sonic kicks the Gunner through two others, and jumps for another perpendicular to the door. Nineteen more droids charge. A missile comes at him, but a kick deflects it. This takes out four more robots, and, through the fire, an Egg Pawn stabs a lance his way. Break dancing to an extent, Sonic dodges each attack and, with a timed step up, stands on the edge of the lance. He runs down its expanse and kicks off the Egg Pawn's head. The thing slices through ten more droids. A shadow passes through the ground, and it connects with Sonic's feet as he lands.

The four who live surround him for all directions. Sonic slips through them, too fast for their sensors, and- wells a way away- jumps. A ball, he bounces through them, homing in on their chassis. Three of them fall. The fourth raises its gun. Sonic taps it with the end of his shoe and it falls into the sea.

Bored in tone, Tails then calls out, "So-onic!" Sonic aboutfaces, a grin letting you guess his knowledge of this, and stabs his fist into the chest of a pouncing machine.

"That's all'a'em!" Tails looks at Koset, rather giddy as he prepares for and expects his friend's rave review.

"Cool, huh?"

"Not really."

"Lame!" Sonic slaps Koset upside the head.

"I thought you, of all people, understood sarcasm."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**That Same Day...**

To call the sky a blue ocean above is excessive but not at all off the mark, although the air is as chilled as a sub-arctic sea. Below is an actual ocean. Waves crash on each other and seagulls wail above. In the distance is land. Green land dotted with small grass houses. On larger strips and archipelagos lie ancient temples foreset by flaming torches. Waterfalls beget rivers who beget waterfalls, and the ocean cares not to hide juddering structures and ruins.

_**BAM!**_

Without any warning, a fireball expands faster than sound to reach out over a mile, covering the entire island, and then much over the waters. Finally it rises like a balloon. The explosion is gradually replaced by smoke. The stack grows higher and darker. As a singular, gray leg appears under the bloomed mushroom of flames at the top, a shockwave travels. Fierce winds blow many of the houses away, with piers and board walks ripping to pieces.. Many of the local residents are blown off of their fee. Heat singes their faces even this far out.

A bowl in the ocean is soon filled in by what unsteamed water can rush in. Above the destroyed base is a black orb. Wikke looks down, emotionless and remorseless, yet if you care to see, he also pants with stress, sweat streaming towards and into a fork at his nose. With UFO-esque maneuvers, he sees himself to the horizon as the ghosts of his motion marry his wake.

These words are all that are left. "_Phase one hhhas begun_."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**End of Episode 1**

"**The Hero and the Madman"**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

_(Un)Official Soundtrack_

-Theme song to Sonic: Evil Reborn Zero-

_**Ultraterrestrial**_

Clintone


	5. Crime Scene Investigation

**(5) Crime Scene Investigation**

* * *

It's late dusk in Adabat. The frustrated inhabitants of the village community flock to the edges of their many board walks, still collectively shaking and silenced. All day, locals have murmured in hushed voices the all-too-repetitious tale of what they had seen. Whispery rumors circulated like a vortex as to what and why this happened and Chinese whispers abound. The story their eyes have told now stretches into creative tellings of dragons, wizards, even monsters.

Red skies hover above a complementing world. Crimson tinted clouds are reflected off of blood-red waves. Grass houses and wooden structures are sitting on boardwalks racing below the evening landscape. Disinterested tropical fish convulse en masse below the reddened waves. The ruby-on-black wall of smoke obscures a once visible island. That island had been engulfed in flames for the better part of the day. A robust and well-stocked GUN base _was _located on the island.

Long after the first responders had left and the flames killed, one last jump ship arrived over the base...

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

"The doctor has become far more ambitious in recent days." That is Shadow. Both fellow Rouge and he survey the ravaged ruins, scanning the considerable amounts of damage, barely visible nests of rubble scattered throughout their destination. Wall choking with soot stand on top of the dead layers of black grime. Frailly overhanging girders stretch over the heads and allow their ghostly shadows to yawn into the ruby seas. Shadow grimaces when he spots, at the end of a small, jutting peninsula on the closest end of the island, the sickly, grey remains of a GUN battle mech. _A manually operated battle mech._

Behind them, most of the still petrified locals betray their instincts to stare at the rotor-driven behemoth gliding above them. Instead, the laser of attention focuses collectively on the cloak easing into the sky beyond Adabat's shores. Scenery moves as if by moving projector beneath the GUN airship.

"Hey, look on the bright side! At least we get to spend a little time in sunny Adabat rather than that wasteland this time." Shadow sends Rouge a stern and overpowering glare. Inappropriate. That was inappropriate, his eyes warn her.

The jumpship lowers to the ground, its thrust spreading and thinning layers of soot and ash. Shadow and Rouge jump off while it hovers several feet above the scorched earth. Unlike most days, the distinctive taste of salt water in the air is lacking. The peacefulness of the gurgling waves and the gentleness of the swaying palm trees now feels demonic. It's as if the flora and the clouds know something they don't and is trying to tell them, never able to form the words. This scene is out of place, enough to scrap together an army of butterflies in one's stomach. Both anthros can feel in the unusually thin air that there is something dangerously amiss; **something is wrong in Adabat.**

"We've arrived at New Serenity. Preparing to investigate." Like Death cackling at him, the communicator cracks.

The dissipating voice of a nameless agent replies, "Understood. If you find any evidence of Eggman's involvement, do not hesitate to respond. Understand that due to strained GUN numbers, back-up may take longer than previously promised."

"Received." Shadow exchanges the same apprehensive look with Rouge. "Keep an eye out for anything of interest." And what does his partner do but relax midair. Rouge sits on an invisible cloud as if bathing in the dusk sun, only giving the ruins second and third thoughts.

"Don't know Shadow," the bat replies. "Doesn't look like _anything's left!_" She strolls around a burnt out computer. With her gloved hand, she wipes off greasy ash from the screen. "But I have a question for you- what did this low key base have that he wanted? Why would he do _this here?_" Shadow remains silent. It's the million-dollar question he doesn't have an answer to.

"Keep an open mind," is his defeated response. He walks into a skeletal hanger. Among the ruined buildings and molten weapons, there is little for the two to look for. Even when they take blatant and brisk steps, they don't hear debris snapping or glass breaking under their feet. The ground is merely dirty.

"And don't forget," the operator suddenly says, "to quell the rebellion in that area. We don't need Adabat falling into Yurist hands. As a secondary objective, the Commander expects you capture or eliminate the rebel leaders in the area."

Shadow nods. "Understood." Rouge, paying him little attention, is already peeking around corners to wall-less rooms, her fingers digging into the crisp, cracked paint on the door's seal.

"I'll take this side. Shadow, you try the other end of the island," Rouge suggests. Shadow barely paid her any attention.

He begins looking aesthetically and meticulously. Twisted metal. He looks right. Burned doors. He looks down. Nothing but the blackened and long dead embers of papers. The base has been to reduced to ashes, yet something about this bothers him.

"Shadow?" Shadow suddenly dashes to the armory. "H-hey! Agh...That hedgehog." _Beep beep beep. _"Hm?! Agent Rouge he-... er, yes! O-of course, sir! I'll be there ASAP." Rouge flips off her communicator and sighs. With a turn towards Shadow, her eyelids drop in concern and regret as she considers how untimely her next words will sound.

"Logic doesn't exist here..." Shadow whispers to himself. Hearing his friend swooping in behind him, he adds, "I don'tthink there_ was _a battle."

"Oh, I see! So the soldiers at this base blew _themselves _up with their _own _weapons, then, while roasting in fires they started out of self-hatred, begged for _backup _to help wipe themselves out!" Shadow turns his shoulder at Rouge's satire.

"OK, so tell me this- if there was a battle, then where's the real evidence? Where are the spent bullet cases, the broken Egg Pawns, the blast marks, or the bullet holes?" Rouge gasps a bit. "GUN received a message that there was a major firefight going on here." Shadow clicks his communicator. A radio transmission shrieks on through the static. On the transmission are the frantic calls for help. In the background are the sounds of total warfare. You can hear gunshots and explosions, as well as the whistles of artillery, the ricochet of bullets, and the whirring of battle mechs powering up. "Funny how the armory doors were still shut and all mechs are still passive." Rouge looks at the bolted door. Just as Shadow said, the inside of the armory is still stocked with the remains of weapons. Have any been tampered, disturbed? No! They rest in their cases, clean.

And the egg pawns- where have they fallen? Have they fallen? Where there ever egg pawns? Listen again to the S.O.S. call. How many times do you hear that term, "knocked a pawn?" Several, all very clear! And it is GUN slang for destroying egg pawns. So where are they? Where are the detached remnants of the pawns?

This room, over here, there lies an array of the remnants of personnel battle mechs that lay unused. I ask you once more to listen to the recording, and you, again, hear a contradiction. The distinct chirping whir of a Headhunter mech comes at many points, and do any of these- look at them!- do any of these look like veterans?

"You're right, that_ is_ pretty strange," she admits.

"And don't think I didn't hear that message you were given. Something about this isn't right, so stay on your guard." If this war-torn battle site were a picture, it would be heavily photoshopped. Shadow rips off a lock and holds the rusted thing in his hand. He thinks of all the possibilities of what happened. The dark thoughts are summed up in one action- he crushes the lock down to particles. What's this but a set of blasted out manual battle mechs. None of them had been activated.

Rouge salutes him. Shadow salutes her back, only with two fingers. Rouge flies off into the horizon. She looks back at the island just once, then continues on into the reddening world.

* * *

Shadow turns back.

He looks at the grass huts and stone temples in the distance. The locals claimed to not have seen anything out of the ordinary at the time of the attack. That's what the briefing stating. Yet at the same time, the briefing also stated that _five _Egg Carriers were seen by the soldiers at the base, based on the recording. The one second in command of GUN had claimed that there was 'proof' of Eggman's involvement, and that the first responders had, in fact, seen the remains of Egg Pawns.

While looking back at the broken mech he had seen earlier, now suspecting no one could have been inside to use it to begin with, he sees a skeleton of blackened scaffolding and broken walls that rises over the rest. This _was _the command center, no doubt. He walks within the broken rib cage of the structure and eyes a desk. On it lies a stack of papers that have largely survived the brutish ambush.

He picks up the top one.

It reads, 'Captain Andrews;

If you have any questions involving the transfer, please contact GUN HQ. Understand just what has been placed into your trust. Guard with maximum security.'

Shadow grimaces. A possible motive! he thinks. But considering the secret weapons GUN has been developing lately, this letter truly comes as no real surprise. He casts it off to the side. It drifts into a surviving trash bin filled with the ashes of older documents.

It's when he reads the second paper that an army of alarm bells go off in his mind.

'If the _**Chaos Emerald**_causes you or any of your units trouble, report to GUN HQ immediately.'

"Hey, Shads!" Shadow about faces and scowls within milliseconds. The last person he wanted to see is reflecting in his eyes right now- that of the image of a familiar blue hedgehog.

Squatting on a rough, scorched pillar, he looks back into Shadow's eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Sonic smirks and closes his eyes. His fist continuously beats his hand. Shadow can tell he's ready for a fight. The ebony-on-black hedgehog folds his arms, but immediately undoes his action as he realizes how cocky and ignorant Sonic is around the site of major death and bloodshed. That isn't like him at all.

"Just chillin' out. _Can't a hedgehog do that?_" Sonic's tone has deteriorated, become caustic. "Oh, I get it! You're a big bad police officer, so that puts you above the law. You _are_ the law, huh? So us punks had better get in our place."

A weak metal support beam riding the former roof snaps and falls to the ground with a loud 'clank.' Sonic appears oblivious. In fact, a large grin grows on his face like a nasty weed in a monsoon.

Shadow prepares himself. "Get out of here, Sonic," is his first and last warning. The entire atmosphere doesn't feel right. The base doesn't feel as if it were destroyed by Eggman, and Sonic definitely shouldn't be here.

Sonic does nothing. Shadow growls and clenches his fists. Sonic isn't being serious. He's joking! Shadow scoffs. _As he does, a fist connects to his face_.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Sonic: Evil Reborn Zero**

**Episode 2**

**Crime Scene Investigation**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	6. An Easy Detail

**Episode 2: Crime Scene Investigation**

**(6) An Easy Detail**

* * *

_Swing!_ Fur flies into Shadow's face before a gut-crushing kick sends him reeling off. Sonic smirks, and here comes another _swing!_ This misses completely. There he is, Shadow. Wrapping up and spinning fast, he razors into his opponent and digs him into the ground. Unwrap, **blow.** With the other down, this ebony hedgehog uncurled and, fist planted on Sonic's head, rammed him into the earth- kick! Out comes Shadow, trailed by strands of flying debris and dust, and- look alive, it's Sonic streaking for him as well! But aha, Shadow's hand is open and inviting! Pools of energy well up, condensing into a tight and golden orb. Sonic falls face first into this pool. Bringing his arm behind his back for power, Shadow throws, Sonic's face caught tight in his grip.

"_Yaaaaaaaaagh!_" A Chaos Spear to the face blasts the azure hedgehog deep into the crust with an impact shooting a mile into the atmosphere. _Crush_. No chance for Shadow to become comfortable when a elephantine boulder crunches the ground he stood on. Never mind that- he has snapped it in half- but more of these meteors are screaming for him.

Two fingers carving the earth, Sonic races quick enough to summon a vortex from his wake, but Shadow doesn't focus on this. The ground, however, the splash from the cutting kicks up a mound in the center. An azure haze still whirring around him, Sonic scoops up this mound and- _Shadow's been blinded!_ The doppelganger brushing mud out of his eyes, Sonic rams his body into the side of a wall, himself protected by the razor ball motion of his body. The side of this man made crag implodes, sending Sonic near unlimited ammo.

"You idiot..." Eyes locked, Shadow raises his body up, and, with a growl, shouts, "Do I need to do this again?!" Hand ready, fingers curled, and body stable, bolts converge into a convoluted mass in the torn palm of his hand. _"Chaos..."_ As tips of his shoes hit the ground, he bolts forward for Sonic. He vaults, thrusts his palm to the ground. "_Spear!"_ With a mighty blast, the entire floor of the ruins crunches together and breaks apart. Had Sonic been moving any faster, he'd have crashed into one of the jutting slates of rock- he _is_ crushed inside! A Chaos Control and a quick tornado kick does him-_ Oh!_ How bloody that strike was. Sonic is down, prone in the earth, a third double-handed smack digging him back into the ground. But he isn't concerned. Sonic pushes himself up and gets to his knees.

"Hey, Shadow. Next time, try hurting." His brow is stooped and angry, but his smirk is brimming confidence without mugging one for it. _Swoosh!_ They attack, twenty strikes at once, with each impact smashing holes in the world, but Sonic gains the upper hand. Shadow looks left, and _strike!_ Pain surges through his face. Shadow skids, then rushes forward, relaxing his jowls and jaw. Sonic smirks again, brow lowering, and rolls into a ball. Vaulting his feet in the ground, Shadow stops short and uses inertia to jump, mimicking Sonic's maneuver as he comes down. The blue hedgehog is too far ahead of him, and it fails. When the tips of his jet shoes touch the sand, he zips forward, sand jetting meters into the air. Shadow's reflexes save him, for Sonic was inches from a headlock. Fingers and fists lock. The two clash and fly backwards, throwing dust and sparks.

Shadow backflips and sticks a landing. Sonic is thrown into a broken window and doesn't emerge. It hits Shadow- this is to Sonic's advantage! He charges for the wall, but Sonic breaks through with a dust filled crash, ramming him back elbow first. Shadow shouts in surprise at Sonic's sudden strike. They collide into a parallel wall. Sonic somersaults backwards and skids on his knee as dust rushes into the anthro. He stands up, grinning with pleasure as the dust cloud clears. Shadow is stuck, embedded, in the burned wall. The cracked paint on the wall scratches the skin beneath his fur.

"Sonic... you chose a _**bad **_day to mess with _me!_" Shadow contracts every muscle in his body, breaking free, damaging the wall further. Before gravity can act, he streaks for Sonic. Sonic attempts to block him, but an elbow-jab to the back sends Sonic hurling face first into the ground. Jets of sand spring up into the air, thrown by the force of impact. Inside the new crater, Sonic rises to his feet. Sand trickles down on him, but it lasts only a moment.

"_Not bad, not bad at all!_" The hedgehog sends an azure-trailed kick into Shadow's chest, launching him through a dirty-silver I beam. The massive beam bends, conforming to Shadow's shape. It whines as it is strained near its breaking point. Shadow regains balance only long enough to see Sonic speeding for him, whirring as a sharp ball. This time, Shadow catches him. The friction between them spits electricity and throws waves of sparks. The I-beam snaps. The sparks singing his face, Shadow is sent back dozens of meters, eventually through the walls of the ruins of the command center, but he is able to slow Sonic's advance to a crawl. The pressure between them builds exponentially. He grits his teeth, looking desperately for an opening on Sonic.

Sonic hits the ground with a spinning kick, forcing Shadow down. Shadow's hands hit the ground first, then he leaps back to his feet, snorting dust from the crash before being sucked in a new direction. Sonic races circles around him, speed quickening until there is a cerulean vortex. Trapped inside the Blue Tornado, Shadow runs in the opposite direction. Dog slow on his first and second, his momentum increases with each revolution. The force of the twister crushes him like a multi-ton wall, but soon enough, their tornados are of equal strength.

The maelstrom unwinds and the two hedgehogs are thrown back. The I-beam crashes.

Shadow scowls as his jet shoes shatter the ground like glass and allows air to fill his lungs with deep and heavy breaths. Sonic makes no attempt to do the same, instead opting to rest his wrists on his hips and stick his tongue out at Shadow. _This can't be Sonic... There's no explanation for any of this! No, this isn't right! Its skills are the exact same level as his, but... this-this hedgehog is too __**strong**__ to be Sonic. There's no chance that clown could have increased his strength so exponentially in the course of four months!_

_No matter... Sonic or not, he chose to mess with the bull!_ Shadow stands erect, hands clenched into fists, one arm rubbing blood off of his lips. Stars of red energy emanate fromhis fists, becoming a smoke like aura. The smoke rolls up his arms, then explodes around his body. Sonic grins.

"Chaos... _BLA_-AAGGCK!" Seconds before completing the attack, he's elbowed in the gut.A fountain of blood shoots from his mouth. Shadow collapses to his knees, but now he rises again. "I'm not going to fall that easi-"_ Pow! A head-butt to the back! _Shadow plants his foot in the ground and 180's- _Bam!_ An elbow to the mouth. He staggers back, nearly tripping to the ground, but able to bring his upper body forward enough. Sonic has- _BAM BAM, BAM! _Two explosive hooks to the gut, one to the face- left, right, and left. Sonic runs into the shaking Shadow and jumps onto his face, both feet planted on his muzzle. As Shadow attempts to throw him off, he is rush-kicked in the face four hundred times by Sonic as he literally runs _on _the black hedgehog's face. With one last mighty blow, Shadow is then thrown clear out of the dilapidated structure by a face-busting flying tornado kick. Already broken down, the command center partially collapses in on itself as crusty debris is strewn across the island and into the sea.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Empire City**

Rouge glides between and over high-rises and skyscrapers. Here, it is well past midnight. The city is lit up like several Christmas trees stacked on each other as it always is. It's a semi-noir scene in Empire City. While the sky is clear over the city itself, towers of clouds are visible in the background.

"Rouge to HQ. Rouge to HQ. I'm near the Empire City station. I have a short distance to go before I reach Central City." What Rouge hears next nearly brings her out of the sky.

"We did not issue a command for you to leave Adabat." Rouge gasps. Rather than arguing her case, she immediately punches in a few buttons on her wrist communicator. It is a bit difficult as her fingers are shaking in awe. How the device is even still locked in her fingers defies explanation.

"I'm... I'm sending you the message," she quivers. The news came like a wrecking ball and all colour has been drained from her face.

She may not be there, but she knows that, as GUN receives the message, everyone must be scrambling to find out who has jacked with their minds and dares impersonates a multinational military organization. But the fact it's a false message is unnerving enough. Somebody went through the ungodly difficult trouble of ruthlessly hacking their way through the densely encrypted GUN line just to separate her from Shadow.

Rouge turns around and begins flying back for Adabat as fast as the muscles driving her wings physically allow her. _Hold on, Shadow! I'm coming!_

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Adabat**

"Buag! _URG! _Ackgh!" Shadow takes increasingly brutal blows to his body. Sonic comes in and knees him in the gut. Instantly, he wraps into a ball, bounces back and then bounces forward. He smacks across Shadow's face, throwing the beaten hedgehog back. Shadow lets out a pained cry.

Scratches running across his face, muzzle bloodied and bruised, and eyelids beginning to droop in fatigue, Shadow stumbles to stay on his feet, then manages a light speed dash towards Sonic. The opposing hedgehog is pushed back by a spinning kick. He rubs his mouth and takes three steps towards the maddened hedgehog before being launched into a sod house- here it explodes in a debris filled blast as he makes impact. All Sonic had heard were the frantic words '_chaos spear._' Lain on his back among the straw, wood, and grass, Sonic jumps to his feet, never once putting his hands on the ground. There's his grin.

As Shadow blows in through smoke for a third strike, Sonic catches the fist with his forearm, ducks under Shadow's arm, and drives his own fist into his opponent's gut. A burst of spit shoots from the ebony hedgehog's mouth as his irises temporarily fade. Shadow clutches his flattened stomach. He struggles to stay on his feet, but gives in to the numbness invading his legs and falls to his knees. Blood and saliva seeps through his teeth and drips off his chin as he fights to catch a single breath, a single molecule of air. The pain racks him, and no attempt to stand succeeds. Moaning in agony, he falls to the side and rolls prone.

Lightning strikes above their heads. A donut shaped figure of tall, cumulonimbus clouds has moved into the area, if not covering even a fourth of the picturesque dusk sky. With it comes the high winds. Wretched is this sardonic spectator of a backdrop, in both its true nature and what truth lies behind its chaos.

He's inches from Shadow's head. Look at that sneer on his face, and you can tell how much apathetic disgust he has at the sight of the downed ebony hedgehog. There may not be much blood on him, but the deep, mahogany red sunlight is enough for now. A kick, two kicks of sand fly in Shadow's face. Sonic clenches his fist and his sneer disappears in a flash, replaced by a growling smile. Shadow staggers to his feet, breathing heavily. Each breath sends shockwaves of pain to his lungs. He rubs the stinging sand out of his eyes.

"The Ultimate Lifeform." Sonic's voice, as it rubs against Shadow's ear drums, makes the prone hedgehog flinch. It's the same cocky tone of his! "Hmph. How _pathetic_." Shadow staggers to his feet, using his knees first to balance, breathing heavily. Each inhale, each exhale comes in harder than the last. But even those fleshy, fragile humans recover from injures like this so easily; it's not the physical injures that hurt. Nothing hurts more than how much he's been humiliated.

"_Sh-shut up, you f...you fake..._" Shadow struggles get the words out of his bloody mouth.

Sonic skips backwards; Shadow winces upon Sonic's first muscle movement. Sonic stops almost one hundred and fifty meters away. Shadow, instead of fighting on, makes the split-second decision to jump off the island. Sonic is unimpressed. He stays put.

Shadow flies hundreds of meters in the air, then lands on a broken boardwalk just outside of Adabat, his quills flapping in the incredibly strong wind. Far from his top speed, he then bursts down along the walk. Shadow would move faster and nearly curses that he doesn't. He raises his arm and spits into his communicator, "_Back up! I __**need **__back up!_" How humiliated he is to have said those words, especially near the ears of Sonic. But he won't dare deny it doesn't exist- Shadow is feeling increasingly nagged by a feeling that this can't be Sonic.

Sonic walks to the island's edge and rubs some wet sand around with his hand. His face is bright with pleasure, the pleasure of enjoying a beautiful evening with the babbling waves whispering and the rustling winds sighing- but he is turned away from Shadow. Soon enough, he peers over his shoulder to see Shadow flee. Shadow is nothing more or less than a dot in the distance, running until the weakened hedgehog falsely disappears within the backdrop of the mountainous clouds.

Shadow looks back for half of a second. To his astonishment, he doesn't even see Sonic. A good thing or bad, he does not know, but for some reason, Sonic is not chasing him. Rather than become arrogant, the only thing passing through his mind is to escape. There's no reason to take chances with Sonic, not after a beating like that.

Sonic, still looking in Shadow's direction, turns his body around. He hops back, gets into a running stance, and blasts off. In his wake, jets of sand shoot into the sunset sky. Shadow hears the sonic boom and dreads to look behind his back. There he is- Sonic. The wake behind him grows in size. Primal instincts take over, and Shadow pushes himself past his limit to escape, but fear is replaced by pain- something's impacted his back, two things. Shoes! Sneakers! His face wipes against the boards while these feet ride him like a surf board. He could taste the rust on the nails in the walk if he wanted to. Sonic, mid-air directly above, twists around and comes down on Shadow. The latter grunts as the weight and pressure of Sonic thrusts him through the weak boards; he slams into the water with a splash that rushes through the under boards.

Sonic smirks. He holds in his hand a prize- Shadow's communicator. He closes his eyes and clenches his fist. Then he opens his eyes, still smirking, walks to the hedgehog-shaped hole, and speaks up."_Well, well, well. Well well well well well! _So much for the 'Ultimate Lifeform.' I thought you were better than that, Shads." Sonic folds his arms. "Not that I really thought anything of you to begin with." Shadow, wet and enraged, surfaces. He grabs a wooden support beam and holds out against the crashing waves, the beam's soaked splinters tearing at his hand.

"W-what?" His reply is garbled out as he spits out more of this disgusting salt water. Its taste numbs his mouth, and he can't repeat his one word question.

"Shadow..." Sonic begins. "Do you wanna know somethin'? I don't like you. I _never _liked you. You're a disgrace to this planet. _You're a mistake, faker! A miserable mistake!_" Shadow winces as he hears Sonic's words. How could he say something like this? "I've been waiting for the day to finish you off for the _longest _time. It's too bad you're too weak and afraid to even fight back! Look at you-_ running away just like your ugly friend, Maria, before she got popped!_" If Shadow weren't so weak, he would be ripping off Sonic's mouth right now. Against his own person, he can take it, but of all the insults, the last thing Sonic should have ever done was to insult Maria. "Shadow, the Ultimate Piece of-"

"_Enough!_" the defeated hedgehog growls. He begins slipping off of the wood. Storm driven waves continue to pound against him.

"Why?" Sonic asks with an **oomph **in his voice. He finally steals his signature blue back from the evening. The sky is only now beginning to turn from a powerful, bloody orange-red to a somber and silent indigo. A shadow runs across his face and hides the whites of his eyes. "I'm only speaking the truth. You're a pathetic waste of everyone's time! Tails pretends to like you. Knuckles doesn't like you. Amy _never _liked you. Cream? She's _scared_ of you. Blaze could never stand you. None of us ever liked you."

Shadow makes an attempt to get to his feet using his fists as support, but falls flat again. "Just... shut up," is his nearly guttural response.

"_Really_, Shadow. It's an easy detail to notice. Heh, makes it sadder 'cause your sorry behind's just now figuring it out. Now don't think I don't care about what's gone on here, at this base, but if fighting you here was the only option I had in the world... " Sonic turns around. "Then what was stopping me?" Now he begins to walk away. "Do us all a favour... " His head half turns over his shoulder. Shadow crawls his way back through the hole and spits out water. "_... and die_."

Shadow's eyes burst open. He's had enough of this. The patter of Sonic's footsteps against the walkway, only drowned out by the waves, begin to silence. He grows smaller and smaller in Shadow's eyes. The hedgehog begins to move.

"Sonic... of _all _the days you chose to mess with me..." His voice is weak, but angry. It is his anger that gives him power to do what he is now doing.

"Shut up, Shadow."

"I've had enough of you..." Shadow puts his hand on his knee and forces himself upward. His body feels thirty times heavier than it is as it responds by sending oceans of pain through his able being.

"_Stay down_, Shadow."

"If you want me..." Both of his feet are on the ground. He continues to orient himself, then grabs the wooden sidebars. He grunts as he pushes himself back to stance, expecting but never hearing a crack coming from his enhanced bones.

"_I said stay down, Shadow!_" Sonic shouts.

"Then you've _got _me!" Shadow charges for Sonic. In his right hand, large, golden tongues of electricity become psychotic ballet dancers as they convulse and compress against themselves.

"_I... said..._" Sonic turns around and rushes, for short. Around him is a maelstrom of sky-blue strings of energy. He begins running faster and faster. "_Stay!_" Shadow and Sonic are feet away from crashing into each other. "_**Down!**_"

Sonic drives Shadow miles down the boardwalk within five seconds. His speed is so extraordinarily fast, the boards on the walk rip in half the entire way through. The ball of Chaos energy in Shadow's hand falls into the ocean with a fizzle, disappearing for good.

At the far end of the wooden walks, Shadow is hit into a dead end and is thrown over the water. Sonic skids to a stop, shooting pieces of wood into the water below.

Shadow crashes on a small sand island twenty miles out, snapping its lone palm tree in half as he is forced through it. He hits the sand in a cloud. A coconut, no two roll near him. As the haze clears, Shadow is visibly unresponsive and unconscious.

Sonic, at the broken edge of the boardwalk, looks at the distant island, his quills still flailing in the wind. He looks at Shadow's communicator. He presses a tiny red button on it, activating the recording function. Into it, he shouts, "_Iiiiiiiiit's __**So**__nic!_"

The circular disk drops to the boards. Sonic's foot is swift to crush it.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	7. Truth Of The News

**Episode 2: Crime Scene Investigation**

**(7) Truth of the News**

* * *

**[Mystic Ruins]**

Sonic, Tails, and Koset are stranded. Surrounding the entirety of the peaceful ruins is a donut-shaped storm cloud. Sonic the Hedgehog sits on the top of the roof of Tails's workshop. His quills flap and undulate in the slapping, perpetual gale. It is late dusk here as well, but instead of a blazing red world, everything is painted blue. Even Sonic is a deeper blue, and so be the sea. Only the shivering porch light on Tails's home, above his door, and the red and green landing lights on the plane doors on the side of his workshop break the indigo atmosphere.

"Yo, Tails!" Sonic calls out, holding his own against the nipping chill by shivering. "Finished with that new plane?" Thunder rumbles in the distance and the consistent gale of wind drowns out their voices, and this added muffler causes Sonic to assume the reply.

"Almost!" Imagine watching your own pride start from nothing more than aspirations born from doodles. For Tails, it's now almost a reality. It only needs just one last push beyond the edge of fantasy, and that will come soon.

"Sonic, tell me. Does this world really have its own Chaos Emeralds?" Koset shouts, prompting Sonic to peek inside the workshop, upside down.

"Run that one by me again!" a shout asks down. Sonic's quills to flail in front of his face as he jumps to the ground.

"_Are there really any Chaos Emeralds around here?_" Sonic screams back a sure 'yes'. "Interesting..." Koset mutters to himself. This world's peoples possess such great power, yet despite so primitive in their actions, they have not destroyed themselves outright. He continues to ponder. Perhaps these denizens are the reason why.

Sonic jumps down and rushes inside. He shivers and shakes, throwing off tiny condensations of ice. "Jeez! It's as cold as the North freaking Poleout there!" he rants with a smile. "Tails, you sure your calender's on the right month?" Under 'July', nine days are crossed out. He had watched Tails mark off the dates as well.

"The weather's just been so _weird _lately," Tails replies. "I was going to try to get one more test flight in, but..." Koset eyes some white drapery lying on the floor and wraps it around himself, forming a saintly veil, only his head being visible. Then he plays with the fabric from the inside, forming sleeves. Somehow, he succeeds.

"Wait, you goin' somewhere?" Sonic asks. Koset opens and quickly closes the door, ice droplets frantically scampering inside. Tails stops working for these few seconds. Sonic walks out. Koset stands at the edge of a cliff and looks out over the ocean. The world is dyed a heavy cobalt and, this he thinks, _will only get darker_.

"So, you have any friends?" the extroverted hedgehog asks, his breath flaring and fading in the air.

"I do. Many, from a variety of backgrounds, character, classes, and walks of life." He speaks with an uninterested tone. "Although, I haven't the time to interact with some of them as much as I'd like."

"Yeah, same here," Sonic replies, "to the nth degree. I got so many odd friends, I don't know what to do widdem all. But! I love alla' them! In a friend sorta way, y'know?" Another rumble of thunder rolls. The fifty-five mile per hour wind gust rattles the window. Tails walks out at this moment, interested enough at their goings, but quickly wraps himself in a blanket before taking a step out.

"Is it always like this?"and after saying this, Koset turns around.

"No," is Tails's quick reply, his own breath mimicking Sonic and Koset's. As he says that, a flake of snow gently eases down and vanishes in the brown-blue dirt. Five more follow, and five more for each of those. He catches a flake as it comes down, although 'catch' is a bogus word- the pathetic flake melts in the palm of his warm hand. "It _never _snows in the lower Mystic Ruins, not even at night in the winter."

"A few days ago, I ran past Mazuri," Sonic says. Tails and Koset turn to him, the former already knowing what he's about to say. "All the water jugs they had were filled with ice!" Koset's head tilts up to the sky. " Yeah, all the locals were using ice picks and their breath to get some water. _So much for global warming!"_ Sonic jokes as he shrugs. He briskly walks back into the workshop, followed by a shivering Tails. Koset continues looking at the royal blue sky. The indigo clouds, once forming a doughnut shape- which had allowed for the trio to see up into the clear vastness of space, already becoming encrusted with late evening stars- had closed. Now the sky is totally overcast. He looks out to the choppy seas. The only thing defying the ever cobalt world is an out-of-place star twinkling a rainbow set in the distance, riding from one horizon to the other.

"_Wikke... just what are you up to?_" he softly mutters under his breath. "_Or am I not... are you even doing anything?_"

"Hey, Ko, wanna chili dog? Got thirty of 'em, hot n' fresh!" Sonic calls out, mouth stuffed. "Twenty nine!" He waves two loaded chili dogs at Koset. He looks back at Sonic without much emotion. "Wefty eight! Bettuh hurffy, manff!" The emerald coloured hedgehog decides it won't hurt and walks for the door. Sonic gulps down the dogs and leads him in. Not even standing all the way outside, he rubs his hands together and blows his breath into them, sighing at the warmth.

~oOoOo~

Under the ground level, in the toasty, humid, well-lit, and rather spacey part of the shop, Sonic jumps onto a couch, chomping away on the meaty 'dogs and gushing down litre upon litre of ice cold root beer. Outside comes another low rumble from the black sapphire outdoors.

"Don't be bashful, Koset. You can watch TV if you want!" Tails says. Koset looks around the workshop. Despite the dominance of general knickknacks of small time projects and fun whatchamacallits, the most impressive item in the place is the still veiled _Hurricane. _

Koset comes across and stares at the box sitting on a small table. It immediately turns on. Sonic nearly chokes on his chili dog and as his eyes dart back and forth between the remote and Koset. The remote is on the other side of the room.

"H-how'd you do that?!" Sonic cries out, coughing a bit. Koset doesn't respond. He didn't have much of a chance to.

"The top news story of the hour-_ the disaster at New Serenity_." All three become fixated to the screen. The news anchor, a well built man with combed red hair and a modest moustache wrapped in a striped black suit, continues, "According to GUN officials, at approximately 12:34 PM, Adabat time, an explosion rocked a small island a few miles to the west of the main settlements in the Eastern Islands region, near the scattered villages that make up Adabat, and a fierce battle ensued after. The island was inhibited by over one thousand active international GUN soldiers at the regional head quarters, 'New Serenity.' Scientists, at this present time, are unsure as to the cause of the attack, but it is believed that the motive may be clear- only three weeks ago, as sources claim, a _Chaos Emerald _had been moved to the base in an attempt to separate it from the other two in government custody. The aforementioned gem is now missing, 'unsurprisingly' says top GUN officials. We come to you live from Central City for remarks from the President."

Sonic and Tails had gasped upon hearing of the disaster, and of the Chaos Emerald. Koset continues to look on with keen interest but with beads of nervous sweat sliding down his temple, now knowing Sonic and Tails spoke the truth about the Chaos Emerald.

On screen, there is a lot of commotion as aides continuously try to get updated information. The President, a slender man wearing a blue suit, comes into view.

"As of right now," he begins, "we are not certain as to whether or not this was an attack coordinated by Dr. Eggman, the Yurei Union, or an unidentified source unknown to our intelligence. We are doing everything we can to calm the residents of Adabat and the families of those whose relatives were in New Serenity and ensure there _will _be consequences for those responsible. The Commander of GUN forces is already mobilizing the Federation's able soldiers to go on the defensive and is contemplating a declaration of martial law in certain high-risk cities." As he leaves the stand, an cacophony of voices speaks up, demanding their questions to be answered.

"And now to Jen with the weather..."

~oOoOo~

"Sounds like Eggman," Sonic morosely says. Is adventure not fun? It is! But all that fun is lost when innocent lives are taken. He stands up and forces himself to down one last chili dog before silencing on behalf of the dead. Koset remains in trance over the news, as if paralysed. Every fibre, every nerve in his body has stopped for this one moment. Stopped not is his mind.

"But...why?" Koset asks, voice drenched in stunned interest.

Tails speaks up, "The Chaos Emerald, Koset. The news man said there was a Chaos Emerald at the military base, and it's gone now." Sonic and Tails put their heads together. "Who else but Eggman would do something like that?" The disturbed warrior does not look satisfied with this answer.

"Eggman's been missing for the past four months, right?" Sonic asks. Licking his fingers, he follows up with, "He's gotta have some lame plan. He always does."

"Miles is right, Sonic," Koset suddenly says as Sonic and Tails gasp quietly by his sudden words, "but perhaps not with the same meaning when he says 'who else but Eggman' would do something this barbaric. I fear this may not stop at Eggman or his picayune plans. There are simply too many coincidences."

"Whaddya mean, Ko?" Koset remains quiet and shakes his head.

"I-I don't know. Maybe I'm overreacting," he finally replies. "I should've just thought this through first."

Sonic, wrists on hips, then partially changes the subject. "I _was _going to run by Adabat," he suddenly says, "but this stupid weather won't let up, so I've been stuck in here since you came here."

Koset turns his head, peering back through the window. "I take it you don't like rain?"

Sonic shakes his head. "Rain slows me down too much. _You _try running into a raindrop at a thousand miles per hour," he says as he rubs his forehead. Tails walks to the opposite side of the incomplete Hurricane. It is still under the huge, white sheet, one that is kept up by a large, 50x50 support cube. For him to work on it, the fox must get under it and use a separate light to work. He's protective about the Hurricane, and desires to wait until it's all finished to show it to anyone.

From under the sheets, he calls out, "Hey, Sonic! Hand me a triple ratchet wrench will ya?" Sonic dashes to a work desk, grabs the rachet, and appears by Tails's side, all within a single second. "Thanks!"

"What I want to know is-" Koset begins.

He's accidentally cut off by Sonic. "Hey, bud, what was that thing on the desk?"

"Hm?" Tails's head pops out from the covers. Sonic points to the desk, specifically at a small, calculator-like device. It certainly appears to be a calculator. It's entirely red, and on the side are blue circles, probably buttons. "Oh!" He emerges from under the covers and walks to the desk. Another rumble of thunder from outside rolls.

"Lemme guess... it's another Chaos Emerald tracker, ain't it?" Tails stares at him for a second, then chuckles a bit.

"How'd you guess?" He picks it up. "This is my brand new Chaos Detector. Unlike all those old ones I built, it won't just find Chaos Emeralds, but anything emanating Chaos or Sol energy down to an accuracy of about a few square millimeters. I figured it would be helpful when something like this would happen. I mean, something like this was bound to happen, right?"

"Sounds perfect! Is there _anything _you can't build?" the azure hedgehog laughs, patting his friend on the head to a smiling response.

"I tested it for anything Eggman could throw at us, so it's got a one hundred percent accuracy rate. The only thing is, since I couldn't get the mark six to work and the mark five is still broken, I'm only using an enhanced mark four Chaos Drive crystal for a power source, so it's been devouring my rings like a black hole," the fox explains, brow uneven in a genius's frustration, "so I have to keep it filled and use it as sparingly as possible. You think you can pick some up for me?"

"No prob!" Sonic rushes out the door in a flash. Koset turns to Tails, the blue one's afterimage still lingering in the foyer.

"Why don't you use a battery?" he asks.

"The crystal works forever, and it's what detects the signals," is the reply, "so it saves space, rather than building a clunky radar. But it eats through rings, and the strength of the signal depends on the number of rings it has stored." He hands it to his new friend. "Right now, it has about ten rings in its stores." After a second ponder, he adds, "And that's very low."

Koset takes it in his metallic hand and sees it working, albeit faintly. "A useful device nonetheless." He places it back on the table. "Miles, I'm afraid that with what may be coming in the following days, this device will be of an amount of help neither you nor I fully realize at this point in time."

Tails smiles gingerly, still clutching the wrench, goggles now on his forehead. "You can call me 'Tails', but... what do you mean?"

Koset takes a sharp inhale. He exhales and shakes his head. That was enough to get the point across.

"And finally, geologists are saying that, due to highly unusual increased seismic activity, Pumpkin Mountain is set to blow, as they say, 'any minute now,'" finishes the weather woman. "Back to Adabat..."


	8. A Happy Ending

**Episode 2: Crime Scene Investigation**

**(8) A Happy Ending**

* * *

**[Lost Forest]**

One leg past the other several dozen times per second, Sonic speeds through the equatorial jungle, blowing past jungle flora and confused fauna. One of the things the hedgehog finds a bit foreign about this darkening, indigo-splattered landscape is how cold it is. Normally, a sultry hundred degrees every day of the year is the norm here and the humidity barely renders breathing possible. Now there's a sloppy mix of winter weather coming down. They may be called Christmas palms, but seeing snow built up upon their leaves is a disconcerting sight nonetheless.

It's sundown, and there are no mosquitos. At least he can be thankful for _something_.

On a dirty, wet path, he picks up over a hundred rings. He maneuvers around ridges and over streams, picking up stray rings as he does. Each brilliant gold ring is sent straight into a 'r-card' as he touches one. Sonic loves Tails as a friend, no doubt, but this is a bit brutal! The wind has increased exponentially, and the nipping chill has become a _biting _cold. On top of that, there is a sloppy mist of icy rain coming down, succeeding in ruining Sonic's night. He's toughed through and out many terrible conditions, but even he has preferences!

"That Chaos Detector better be worth this," he groans as he spots a twenty-ring cylinder at the base of a waterfall, the mist of which becoming floating droplets of solid ice. Shivering the entire way through, any and all beads of sweat that may have raced down his face have already frozen.

He blazes through lines of rings. The tropical animals observing are nearly blown away as he passes them. All of them are suffering and don't respond to the presence of the hero as they normally would. Boas, instead of zipping across the ground to attack and constrict Sonic, retract and hide under rocks. Pelicans and parrots are all absent, instead tending to find warmer air wherever they can find it. The hedgehog, not wanting nor daring to stop, looks around as he runs.

"Poor guys. They don't even know how to hibernate, and none of the birds can fly much farther south than this..." As Sonic attempts to get his one hundredth ring, he hears what sounds like a faint, dying chirp. He was balancing in the tightrope branches of the trees' canopy when this happened. Mere soundwaves enough to throw him off, he goofed and slipped out of the three hundred foot-high tree, crashing upon its mighty swaying branches more than thrice, and, upon hitting the ground, expelling all ninety-nine of his rings from the r-card.

"_Shhhoot!_" he groans as he sees in agony the scattered rings. Adding a healthy layer of ripping insult to a bloody injury is ice already coating around the rings. He grabs a fallen tree branch and begins to go ballistic, taking swipes at bushes and small trees, and repeatedly tenderizes the slippery ground beneath him before tossing the thing far behind his back.

Sanity restored, he hears the chirping again and quickly turns his gaze towards the leaves above. He looks around among the rustling leaves. The chirping begins again. With a swift vertical run, it's back up the tree for Sonic, leaping to make a monkey grab for a branch. On said branch lies a nest of flickies. He gasps when he sees them. Cold and sick, the piteous birds almost certainly are, their faces doing their best to cry out to the hedgehog staring at them. The pink mother and teal blue father are cuddled together.

Sonic gently pets them as if they were his own. By doing that, he moves them just enough to notice that they're actually trying to warm a flicky egg!

"Poor guys! You want to get to a warm place, but you don't want to leave your egg, doncha?" The flickies respond by chirping in approval as best as they can. Sonic, blowing into his hands for warmth himself, picks up the nest, holding the flickies close to his body. He darts down the trunk of the tree and into the forest. Nearby is a volcano. If he can bring the flickies to a point close enough for the lava to at least warm them without turning them into fried flickies, that would be perfect.

He rushes for the volcano, running over a rickety wooden bridge, the bitter, wet wind splashing against his face. From beneath screams a half-frozen river dropping disappears into a volcanic cavern that, fortunately, leads to a dead end. Deep within the cave, it is very warm, warm enough to support life. With no magma to threaten the flickies, Sonic sets them down on a stalagmite with a flattened top.

The flickies fiddle around a bit as they try to warm their egg. Sonic prepares to run out. Instead, there is a scream as he falls into a pitch black cavern.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

When he comes to, the first thing Sonic realizes about his new location is just how wonderfully warm it is. It isn't an oppressive warmth. Instead, it kind of feels magical; it feels as if it's patting him on the back. But when entering such from the grips of a sadistic cold snap, any warmth feels magical. Rubbing the microscopic pebbles out of the fur on the back of his ears, he lifts himself off of the mahogany ground. With a sneeze, he gladly accepts the hug of the volcanic air over the maddening freeze of the world above. It feels wonderful to trade a brutish and deep lazuline world for this new, warmly red one.

Take a look around. No jutting rocks or weathered earth. Stalactites do hang from the ceiling, but it's become a theatre- they're probably nearly eighteen hundred feet high. Magma flows in the background, but little if anything threatening comes Sonic's way.

When he turns around, he spots a cave that turns into a glow-luminescent and unseen room. Sonic is an absolute _sucker _for corners- it's a bit of an adventure in itself just to see what's beyond one's turn. He swiftly rushes into the cave and stops at the edge of an underground cliff, never once entering darkness nor light. Not until the end of the cave does he notices a distinct golden hue bouncing off of the walls.

What he sees beyond the edge is Ring Heaven! For miles upon miles upon miles, the stunned hedgehog sees nothing but a _biblical _amount of golden power rings. There's literally an undulating sea of pure gold set before him, just begging to be collected!

"Talk about perfect!" He whistles. "Sweet!" With no thoughts about why there might be so many rings here, nor any cares, he slides down the sloped incline and gets to work collecting as many rings as he needs.

~OoOo~

"A thousand's good," he says as he checks his r-card. "Better save the rest a' these for later!" He dashes back for the cliff, having only scraped the surface of the tip of the iceberg of the total number of rings. He runs out of the cave and back into the vast subterranean plain and, to his right, is an exit. Naturally, as anyone else would, Sonic begins for it, then looks back up out of a compulsion to do so. There is the hole he fell out of.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

The flickies continue to huddle together, selflessly worried about the fate of their baby. Even if he or she has survived the brutal conditions, that same out-of-season weather will prevent them from scouring for any remaining food. And even if they can make an attempt to find food, competition will certainly exist between themselves and every other desperate living animal in the jungle. They themselves shall be food. They can only hope for the best.

That's when a hedgehog's shadow stands over them. With nine rings hovering around his hand like a halo, Sonic places a ring on the mother flicky, then one on the father flicky. He stands back up. The seven remaining rings float from Sonic to around the nest; the flickies flap away as they begin to understand what Sonic may be trying to do.

The golden glow of the power rings reflects off of the cold egg, warming it up exponentially. As the egg becomes warm and full of life, it cracks. Even Sonic gasps. It cracks again, and again, and again. Out from the once dead egg is an alive and well baby Flicky. Alive only because of the generosity of a certain blue hedgehog. The flicky's parents seem to cheer in happiness as they hug their baby the best a flicky can hug another.

Sonic throws him a smile and a wink. As he shudders as a bone chilling, ice-encrusted wind gust rips past him, he realizes he can't leave them here, but he'll worry about that next episode.

It's a happy ending for such a sad day.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**End of Episode 2**

"**Crime Scene Investigation"**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

_Good advice-_

_Perfect Dark Zero OST- Riverfront: Extraction_

_Perfect song for "Truth of the News"_


	9. Recovery Op

**(9) Recovery Op**

* * *

_Agent Rouge. Central Command has requested your presence. Return to GUN HQ as soon as possible._

_Agent Rouge. Central Command has requested your presence. Return to GUN HQ as soon as possible._

_Agent Rouge..._

For hours it goes on, and for more hours, it grows more and more confusing. Why is it so confusing? How has it become so confusing? Sixteen words in all- she knows the exact number of words now!- and yet what sat at the edge of sense at the start now have become lost in her mind. But this is much ado about nothing. Just paranoid concern. No, what she must concern herself with is her (and Shadow's) absolute duping. It oppresses her mind that this has happened, and it must do the same to the GUN operators. A nation-sized group of hackers is a viable theory, but a massive intellect will also help.

"Eggman." She holds this word with certainty and doubtlessness. "If Doctor Eggman isn't responsible for this, I'll rip off my wings and sell them to charity." Down there- right ahead, but below her! A boardwalk, and across it's span it has been shattered in two- down the middle. A battle has occurred. The only assumption to hold is that Shadow won.

Now Rouge begins flying over the Adabat archipelago and spots the large, vacated island New Serenity had been located on. She swoops down and, upon landing, runs back to the spot she last saw Shadow. There is a mound, an old landmark, so she looks on the other side, finding nothing. Then her communicator begins to react. There's another one in the area somewhere. That must be Shadow.

Following an augmented reality waypoint formed on the small screen, she glides over the broken boardwalk and suddenly begins feeling, with growing dread, just what may have happened. The only thing to do now is to follow the waypoint to the end of the walks. She clings not to the devil on her shoulder, telling her that all is lost and she shall be saddened. Or perhaps that's the angel. Rouge can't tell.

The bat sees a tiny island directly ahead of her. However, the way point stops at the end of the boardwalk. Rouge hovers over the snapped boards, looking down. There it is- the crushed remnants of Shadow's special communicator. Digging in the tiny ruins, Rouge picks out three small objects that have survived. She puts them away and turns back towards the island, hell-bent on finding Shadow.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

"_Shadow!" _Rouge cries out upon seeing the broken body of the hedgehog. She drops to the ground and rushes to his side. Not even a grunt or a moan- he is entirely unconscious. Pulse twice as fast as normal, she feels for vital signs, fingers shivering enough to nearly render the act useless. "_Still alive... but barely_." She then takes another look at the wreck of a communicator. _Oh jeez. Whatever took down Shadow's still on the loose, and if it was able to take down __**this **__bulldozer of a hedgehog..._ Her communicator suddenly beeps as GUN calls in. The bat jumps and takes a reassuring breath in before mustering the strength to answer.

"Agent Rouge. Do you copy?"

"This is Rouge. I'm finally out of the storm and in Adabat, and I've found Shadow. He's..." Her voice is waving excessively, and she's speaking faster than Sonic can run.

"Yes?" The agent on the other line is able to understand her well enough.

Rouge's voice breaks a bit at the beginning. "Well, I don't know for sure, but he's pretty banged up." Now she sounds a bit more confident. "I'm going to bring him to the nearby medical satellite base for recovery."

"Shadow the Hedgehog _did _survive? So his injuries not extensive were enough?" The operator sounds as if he already knows Shadow partook in a tragic battle, and this is what piques Rouge's interest. She looks at Shadow for a moment before replying.

"D'you mean you _already know _about this?" The bat is a bit upset she wasn't notified about this before now, and rightly so.

"We've analysed audio recorded last night after the last time Shadow reported in to GUN HQ. We received a disturbing message from him approximately three hours after you received the recording."

"What was his last message?" The operator rustles around a bit and puts on the recording. Rouge can hear Shadow's desperate pants, then she hears his almost panicked voice, '_Back up! I need back up!' _Several panic filled seconds later, there's the sound of a sonic boom, a crash, and then a struggle. The operator fast-forwards. Rouge is stunned. She's never heard Shadow call for back-up before. Not once in her life!

"This is... this is the part of the audio that has allowed us to determine his aggressor's identity." The operator had sighed heavily after the first 'this is', as if floored by the truth himself.

"_Iiiiiiiiit's Sonic!_" A crash of static. "_Iiiiiiiiit's Sonic!_" Another jolt of static. "_Iiiiiiiiit's Sonic!_"

Those words are burned into Rouge's skull as they continue to replay over and over again. Of all the people to have said that, of all the people to have been involved...

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Sonic: Evil Reborn Zero**

**Episode 3**

**Race For The Emerald**


	10. Typical Chaos Emerald Hunt

**Episode 3: Race for the Emerald**

**(10) Typical Chaos Emerald Hunt**

* * *

"3... 2...1..." Three flashes- with them, three beeps- from that tiny green light."There! It's done!" Tails gives the detector to Sonic. "Thanks for getting all those rings, Sonic! How'd you do it so fast?" A quarter-of-a-second pause. "Dumb question, I guess."

Sonic rubs his nose and gives Tails a smirk. "What can I say? I'm a ring magnet." Either Koset isn't a joke fan or that was a pathetic one.

"Was that supposed to be funny?" Koset whispers into Tails's ear. He opts not to respond to Koset, and turns to Sonic.

"With this many rings, I can keep the Chaos Detector fully charged for days!" It pings before he finishes his sentence. Truth, Reader, is that it rang of a signal before, but not at this intensity.

Sonic takes in a huge breath and then exhales a heavy one to boot. "Ah! The smell of a new adventure!" Each ping demands a smile, and Sonic doesn't resist. Oh just imagine what this means! There's nothing to compare. Nothing in this world. But he imagines. Imagine being washed in bright and tropical sunlight, overseeing in a field of idyllic, emerald green grass. Then a wave of sweet, turquoise water rushes over you, your face. And from your face washes away all the mystery and confusion of yesterday... But return to the grass, the sunlight, and bathe in its open brightness. Sonic looks on at the dawn skies and reflects on nature's silent message, these thoughts in mind. It only means one thing.

A new adventure is a-coming. What else can you do- what else does fate let you do- but charge at it headlong and headstrong?

"You don't find this troubling?" Koset asks, smiling a bit. "Perhaps I should have visited you before now."

"So where _is _this Emerald?" Tails punches in a few buttons on the face of the device. A hologram fires, extending several inches above the screen of the detector itself. "Whoa! _That's _a snazzy new feature!" The area pictured becomes more and more refined, and- aha, there it is- a 3D image of a city comes forth. Time pushes the advancement forward, and landmarks begin becoming clear.

"It should be in... _Empire City!_"

"Aw yeah!" Sonic hops from side to side. "Tails, I'm getting that feeling again!" And Tails has the medicine Sonic needs.

"I'm bringing out the Tornado now!" He chugs a level back, and as it eases back forward, the double-tail insignia above them separates as the door opens. Here it comes, from the floor! The Tornado. And it brings Sonic.

"Iiiiiiiiiiiii'm waaaaaaaaiiiitiiiiiing!" Sonic drones on from atop the plane. Tails throws him first a surprised look but smiles it off. Koset chuckles like a friend his whole way to the Tornado. Sonic flashes the r-card. Tails throws him five rings. He then walks to his three new pets- the Flickies- Sonic had saved the night before.

"Take care of the workshop for me!" Tails's jokes, petting them all. They happily chirp back.

Although slowly at first, the Tornado begins to pick up speed. The silent hum of the propeller becomes a pleasant roar. A line of parallel palm trees begin fully bending opposite of each other as the Tornado begins skipping down the dusty runway.

"So ya wanted to come, eh?" Sonic throws at Koset. Koset remains face-forward. His expression is serious and his voice low-toned.

"Can we just get to wherever we need to go? I'm not exactly a fan of people dying for no reason." Sonic shrugs and looks off into the horizon. All three feel the weightlessness of flight. The sky dominates more of their view and demands more. The Tornado speeds off into the morning sun.

~oOoOo~

As they sail through the plains of the sky, Sonic- he's riding on the tail just in behind Koset- taps Tails's shoulder and points to the Chaos Detector.

"Does it get any better?" Tails nods. He hands it to Sonic as he speaks, already interpreting the point as a demand for the object.

Tails then playfully orders in an if-you-so-dare manner, "Press the big blue button!" Sonic follows orders. As he does, the 3D holo-image of Empire City grids out once more and focuses onto a web of bridges and highways, all of them unfinished. Sonic recognizes them.

"Highway Zero? So you're saying it's on Highway Zero!" he shouts back.

"Near the Exit to Naka Street, it seems. That's the closest I can get right now. If I could upgrade it some more," Tails explains, rolling his hand, "I could get even _better _accuracy."

"Sonic, tell me, just so I can know." Koset grabs Sonic's attention. "How many Chaos Emeralds have you found? Total?"

"Seven!" Sonic shows it to him with his fingers. "There's seven that we know of."

"Huh, that's odd," Koset replies. He rubs his chin as he contemplates this.

"Yeah, last time I checked, seven _is _odd!" Awkward silence. Large sweat drops appear on the back of their heads. Tails lets out a few weak chuckles. 'Sonic isn't winning any comedy awards,' is his late whispered reply to the nigh forgotten question.

The Tornado blows through a pure white cloud. It emerges in the wild blue sky, high over a series of green mountains and sapphire blue lakes. Embedded into the purity above are broken clouds, groggily sliding across the sky like grumpy and tired old men. This tickles Sonic's curiosity, and he begs himself to ask a random-enough question.

"So, Koset!" The green hedgehog looks down at Sonic. "You got a home?" Koset sighs upon hearing it in its entirely.

"Of course." He sounds a bit more optimistic than usual, but he looks up as if trying to avoid answering it any further.

"Anywhere 'round here, or are you an _alien?_"

"Would explain why you fell outta the sky!" Tails jokes. "We've been getting a whole buncha aliens recently." Koset flatly and smilelessly chuckles, as if discarding their hypotheses without acknowledging they were made

"I'm from the area you might now call 'South Island'." Sonic chuckles to this and pats his back.

"I know that place. Where from? Green Hill? Osea? Where?" all said in a rush.

Koset replies just as quickly. "It's a mountain now, and I believe Dr. Eggman has built onto it, but that's where I was born." He folds his arms behind his back.

"Let me guess- Eggbuttnik forced you and your family out." Koset remains silent for a moment.

"Yeah." His answer is a bit shaky, but seems plausible.

* * *

**[Satellite Medical Base to New Serenity, Outside Adabat]**

Shadow is placed in the pod. They place a breathing apparatus over his nose and mouth and a clear-white fluid fills up the chamber. The glass hatch close. Rouge's face reflects in the glass. Her hand... she puts her hand to the glass and sends her heart's silent wishes. As wires hook up to Shadow's head and body, they reveal on a nearby screen that he is, indeed, alive. His ruffled quills float and wave in the fluid as the hedgehog floats inside. A female doctor, medical coat and all, stands over Rouge, gazing into the pod with equally crestfallen eyes.

"The nanobots are infused with bio-Chaos energy of the same frequency Shadow's nervous system naturally produces. Taking into account Shadow's abnormally high tolerance to bodily damage, full rejuvenation should take five days." The bat scoffs and quickly tucks her arms away.

"Pfft. Please. Knowing Shadow, he's probably already halfway healed by now." Rouge wants to block out any bad news about Shadow... "What I wanna know is why that snotty little blue-butt did this to him, and on top'a that, why did the Doctor hack the line to fool me into abandoning Shadow." ..But knows she isn't doing anything resembling a good job of it.

Another man is sitting in a chair, his arm in a sapphire-blue around-neck cast. He's a white-haired young adult, his combed-back hair reaching the back of his neck, with a less than prideful navy uniform.

"Hey! You're Rouge the Bat!" he calls out to her with a grin plastered on his face and friendly enough eyes.

"That's mah name. What happened to _you_, dear?" His face flushes, yet it isn't until he loses the smile does he offer anything like a response.

"Oh, nothing. I was with the escape party on New Serenity- you know about New Serenity already, right? Good- I was with them after this huge explosion, but I decided to get on a speed boat instead of take all the other stuff they were using. On my way here, the sun got in my eyes, and I crashed into one'a the piers."

"So that explains that, but you don't look like the kind of lad who'd bail just because of some light in his eye, but- oh well. Humans, what can ya' do. By the way, what else did you see at the base?"

"Well..." His eyes suddenly narrow and his grin twists.

"Have you heard?" someone suddenly says to another. Rouge is up for a little eavesdropping. "Sonic the Hedgehog's in Empire City right now." Both involved in the conversation are medical assistants helping to hook up another patient in a separate chamber.

The second doctor looks surprised. "So soon after doing _that _to Shadow?"

The first one nods. "He's destroying that place. He's busting out every vehicle in the Duke district and someone just said, I-I heard we're tryin' to get troops in there now. It's a mess."

"Are you sure it's Sonic and not-"

"No." An older, human man wearing a highly decorated uniform comes into the room, hands behind his back in an authoritative position. His hair, combed and red-above-gray, adds to his presence. "We've analyzed every byte of data we've received. Everything's a complete match. If that's not Sonic, then it's a _damn_ good copy." Rouge walks up to him, expression as carefree as ever.

"So you're saying that Sonic suddenly went and made himself a bad boy!" She looks back at Shadow, her sarcastic smile erased. In a far more somber tone, she says, "I can't believe it myself."

The lieutenant looks down to his right as he closes his regretful eyes. "Unless Dr. Eggman is responsible for this."

Rouge about faces in a highly split second. "Don't waste your breath. Big Blue would _never _work for'im if given a choice or not." She points at him. "That's a fact. Eggman may be responsible for hacking the comms line-"

"Actually, Rouge," the white-haired kid begins, "the line never _was _hacked. From what I heard, our guys already tracked it back to GUN HQ. It was human error and not Egghead. The only people still saying it was are just Internet trolls and Shadow's fan-army."

"Hmph. That _still _doesn't explain why Sonic had to do this to Shadow."

"I'm sorry, Rouge. I know you and Shadow have strong ties with him, but he must be stopped at all costs," the lieutenant consoles.

The more she thinks about it, the more plausible the idea becomes. She begins strutting away from the pod, nose in the air. "This would take _no _time if I had the..."


	11. Haphazard Hazards

**Episode 3: Race for the Emerald**

**(11) Haphazard Hazards**

* * *

"Was that a bomb?!" Someone shouts.

"That was a bomb!" another cries. Personnel in the room rush to a connecting hallway, some of them armed with assault rifles or pistols. Amid the uproar, Rouge turns about, confused, trying to make sense of the pandemonium. At the same time, stemming from the senselessness that has already begun to occur, she's been expecting something like this to happen. She looks the way of where she heard the sound and then follows the crowd.

Through the smoke of the explosion, GUN soldiers rush between first responders taking away the injured. The explosion knocks out lights to some parts of the base. Rouge, as she follows them, runs through darkened rooms. While some men run into walls and canisters, she maintains perfect clarity.

"It's no use, it's friggin' jammed!" she hears from a soldier. A small squad have run across a double door, yet are left with only a small crack between the doors as any proof of a room beyond them. While the humans waste their time trying to pry the doors open, Rouge jumps onto and plants herself onto a wall. Busting out a nearby vent, she climbs into the system. Spitting out the dust in the warmed air inside, she comes across an interesting sight not too far below. From her glove, she pulls out a tiny ball. A violet thing, it is decorated with Rouge's promiscuous black hearts and appears, of all things, fully metal. However, it conforms through the folds of the vent and drops.

Every light blows out, and the Egg Pawns standing ready beneath Rouge fall to the ground, their red eyes now black. _Patter patter._ The vent hits the ground, and, half of a second later, so does Rouge. All of the vertical double doors in sight have jammed themselves half way, a quarter way, three quarters of a way, less, and more open.

A petite, female droid stares back into her face. Other than a huge beret, what seems like silver and static hair underneath, and violet digital eyes- and this is what is most pathetic- the droid laughably seems ripped off from a discarded Metal Sonic prototype, too svelte to be combat ready and too unassuming to be good for anything else.

"So the good ole' doctor is getting unoriginal," Rouge mocks with a laugh. What tips Rouge most off about her is that above where her breast would be is an _Eggman Empire _insignia. "Yep. Good. Ole' Doctor." At which point she frowns. A quick whip to the head with a metal rod, and the robot is sliced in half. Rouge walks on with bravado, not caring to gaze back. _Then that's it. He's behind this._

She looks between the folds in another vent. Collectively, everyone with a gun in the room raises them. Rouge pushes her way past the blockade.

"_Hold your fire!_" the red-haired lieutenant barks from a video feed. "Do not shoot until given the order!"

"Dr. Eggman. I should have _known _he would have something to do with this," Rouge whispers to herself. The bat punches out the vent and lands inside a gap between two lines of locked and loaded soldiers. None of them even flinch.

"Intruder, you have ten seconds to surrender or else we _will _be forced to open fire," the heavily-armored and aging lieutenant shouts from the screen. The droid stands up and examines all of the human troops. It spots Rouge.

"Doctor, you were correct. One of Sonic's friends is here," it speaks in inhuman monotone. From inside her huge, metallic beret comes the response.

"Lend me your eyes. Ah! Rouge the Bat! I was considering 'to what do I owe the displeasure'." All soldiers in the room lower their guns by just that much.

"Doctor _Eggman?_" the base commander asks. Rouge holds her hand up at him.

"This one's all me." She emotionlessly walks towards the robot, feeling no threat from it. "What's up, doc? Sonic bust up any of your toys lately?"

"Why don't you tell me, my fair harlot." Rouge puts her foot down. "After all, he did an excellent job 'busting up' your friend."

"Shut it, you talking egg! Now tell me, whaddyou know about that?" Silence for a second. Eggman chuckles slightly. "Don't play dumb with me, doctor! I know you know something! Why did you destroy that base? And who really took down Shadow?"

From the crackling radio, everyone can clearly hear the sound of Eggman reclining. "I'm sorry, my dear Rouge, but I had _nothing _to do with any of this! Quite frankly, I'm appalled you'd accuse good ole' Doctor Robotnik of such heinous crimes!" Rouge grabs the robot by its shoulder blades as Eggman unleashes a dirty laugh. "Good day, Rouge. Good day. Oh, and do have fun with this new, albeit _much_ lower quality, model of mine, 'Rockette'. If you can, please get rid of it. I _rrreally _don't like these models. _Au revoir!_"

"Why you sorry son of a-" Rouge begins. The robot throws Rouge off of her. When Rouge stumbles to stay standing, she and everyone else in the room sees, "A Chaos Emerald!"In the grasp of its metal hands, there it is, as Rouge commented. The whole room readies for a fight, although Rouge fails to see any reason why anything more than a weak slap couldn't knock the thing apart.

In their hesitance, the machine jumps behind a wall of smoke. Machine guns let loose, but as the troops enter and exit the smoke, they see the droid well away from the island. It stands amongst several of its kind as well as those of other models- Egg Pawns, the most prevalent- and vanishes behind the door of an Eggman Empire jumpship. Say, half the squad of soldiers run out the hole and attack the ship.

Rouge folds her arms. "Hmpf. Too scared to fight. _What _a waste of time." She takes another glance back at the de-stressing soldiers, then back out the hole. She can hear the distant patters of rapid fire gunshots begin to slow. "The doctor either has the mother of all plans ready or he's just messing with me." Rouge takes one last glance back at the door. In her mind, she can see Shadow in suspended animation inside the medical pod. _Five days. Five days. Five days. Good gosh, that's a bit too long for this hedgehog. _She snaps her fingers, struck with an idea. "I know what I'm gonna do today!"

* * *

**[Empire City]**

As the puffy white clouds give way to longer, thicker ones, the Tornado soars over the skyscraper rooftops below. Tails pushes the throttle and the plane begins to slow down and lose altitude. The city below falsely grows in size as they descend towards an airport stretched out before them.

"Is _this _what passes for a city?" Koset mutters to himself. He spoke too clearly.

"You got an idea for a better one?" Sonic throws back at him. Koset looks a bit confused and even slightly ashamed at first as he realized his trivial folly.

"Sorry, it's just... I'm not used to cities so..." Koset closes his eyes, and shuts his ever-failing mouth. "So where was the Chaos Emerald again?"

Tails can barely hear him over the sustained roar of the propeller. "Highway Zero, near the exit to Naka Street! How it got _there_, I don't know, but I've seen 'em in weirder places. Like this _one _time-" As the wheels of the Tornado near the ground, what Tails sees next nearly forces his heart through his throat. "S-Sonic..."

Sonic looks forward and gasps. Military soldiers are lined up and anti-aircraft weapons scatter throughout the airport. Barbed wire, sandbags, and other obstacles have been placed at the end of the runway.

_Boom! Boom! Boom!_ Anti-aircraft shells bombard the airspace as the Tornado swerves to avoid the shots.

"Hey! Fourth a' July's over! What's goin' on?!" Sonic shouts as shrapnel sprinkles the plane.

"Why are they firing?" Koset growls. One shell explodes dangerously close to the Tornado and sends both hedgehogs scrambling to hang on for dear life.

"Doesn't look like they want us to land, Sonic!" Tails forces the plane up. It swoops down to mere feet off the ground, just as GUN soldiers fire at it. It rises again, still being shot at by all available guns.

"Sorry, couldn't tell, 'cause it don't look like they want us _alive, Tails!_" Sonic retorts.

"Whoa!" all three cry as the Tornado is skimmed by a shell. Smoke blossoms out from under the left wing.

"Activating aqua limbs!" Tails cries as he slams his fist onto a button. The wheels are replaced by dual floating skis. He tries to bring it up, but the damn thing won't respond well enough. The only thing the plane can do now is swing between buildings and high-rises. But there's a shoreline mostly hidden behind these structures, from their current vantage point. The point is, there's a shoreline, and thus must be a body of water- they'll land there. The people inside the skyscrapers look dazed, but the wings are close enough to just barely clip the windows.

"Oh, _how convenient!_" If you look behind the Tornado, you'd realize that Koset has reason to sound that sardonic. Sonic, all the same.

"Uh, Tails?" He taps his friend's shoulder. Tails, unable to look back for a second, has to check a radar just to see the threat. An anti aircraft, heat-seaking surface-to-air missile is dogging them- _and _gaining on them.

"Why?!" he screams. "Why are they doing this?"

"You can't shake that thing off. If you try to, it could crash into a building and-"

"Already _five _steps ahead a' you, Sonic!" Tails holds up a power ring. Sonic snatches it. Koset looks on. As the hedgehog absorbs the energy of the ring, he begins glowing faintly as small, golden streaks surround him. He makes a leap for the missile, wraps into a ball, and blasts through it. The missile snaps in half, then explodes in a massive, hellishly fiery explosion quickly replaced by smoke. Sonic still glows when he lands on the side of a glass building. He guns it for the Tornado and leaps at the very edge. He deserves an A- Sonic touches down on the very spot he sits on. That is not all- the whole sequence played out in the span of a second and a half. Koset looks impressed.

"That was... interesting." Sonic flashes the near depleted power ring.

"Still got some power left, buddy!"

Tails checks the fuel gauge. "This isn't good, guys! The damage from that shell is eating through our fuel! I can't-" The Tornado shakes as the engine sputters and stalls for half of a second. "I can't keep this up for more than another minute!"

Sonic groans as he turns back Tails's way. "In that case, _don't _look back." The other two then look in the same direction the first missile came from out of reverse psychology curiosity. Sure enough, not one but two more come to avenge the first. As Sonic prepares to make another round, he's pushed back by Koset.

"Allow me." From under his white veil, Koset pulls out a small, cylindrical handle.

"Today?" Sonic pushes on. A green beam shoots out from the handle. It's a _light saber!_ "Whoa!" Sonic chuckles as Koset charges off the Tornado, shooting through the exhaust of the Tornado. With a laugh, he says, "Well! May the force be with_ you!_" The green hedgehog has one missile dead in his sights. He clutches the saber's handle with both hands. He raises the saber, then forces it down, slicing the missile cleanly down the middle. The two halves, totally deactivated and rendered harmless, fall back to Earth.

One, however, falls at a sharper angle than the other, as Koset uses it as a foothold to jump to the second missile and, standing on it, jams the light saber in the missile. He swiftly walks back across the four-inch wide missile, bringing the saber back with him. This missile, too, is sliced in half. As it falls, it crashes into the rocky beaches below. Koset makes the leap back to the Tornado. He draws back the light saber.

"_That was straight up tight!_" Sonic claps. The engine sputters again, then completely stalls. The view ahead falls, replaced by the beaches below. "Yikes..."

"Don't worry this time, Sonic," Tails announces. "At this speed and angle, we'll make a masterpiece landing on the water!" As the Tornado dips lower, it flies over the sandy and rocky beaches, on which stunned bystanders look up. It slows and nears the surface of the water, prompting Sonic to look over the side with a bit of apprehension flowing through his eyes and mind alike.

"We won't have to swim... will we?" The Tornado touches down at a leisurely speed, drifting on the sea to slow to a crawl, then a stop.

Sonic, Tails, and Koset all breathe a collective sigh of relief. Koset looks back at the nearby city. Black choppers and hovering mechs dot the skies. Jutting out of and back into Empire City, making a horizontal arc over the water, is Highway Zero. Sonic points to it with his thumb.

"At least we won't have to go all the way back in the city just yet." Sonic, at least, found the bright side to this.

"Does this happen all the time?" Koset asks as he pushes himself to his feet.

Sonic hits his forehead with his hand. "Man, you just won't _believe _what goes on here!"

"A day in the life of Sonic the Hedgehog," Tails well-meaningly adds. Sonic grabs his and Koset's wrists and revs up his powerful legs.

"Hang on tight!" He blasts off into the cloud-covered, apocalypse-ready city at the speed of sound. Highway Zero is the only place to go.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	12. Getting Your Ass Handed To You By A Ball

**Episode 3: Race for the Emerald**

**(12) Getting Your Ass Handed To You By A Ball**

* * *

"_Sonic!_" He remembers this voice all too well. It's time to run for the hills.

"Later guys!" But he fails! Amy Rose grabs him by his largest quill. He can only brace to be wettened by kisses and lip-stick... but he didn't expect to be thrown to the ground! "What was that for?!"

"_**What **__did __**you do **__to __**Shadow?**_" she cries with fervent passion, letting her tone get scornful and loud. Sonic's eyes are raised to the point it appears he's a double-iris cyclops. Tails and Koset feel the same way, just as stumped as Sonic is.

"Shadow? Whaddya mean _Shadow? _I haven't seen him in months!" he replies, defensive to a point.

Amy, hands on hips, bent over, and furious, charges back at him. "It was you! It's all over the news! First you killed Shadow, and now you...you did this to... Emp- Empi..." Amy's fiery demeanor is replaced by one on the verge of tears. Sonic's outstretched arms catch her.

"Amy," Sonic softly begins. "None of this was me." Koset walks up to Amy.

"Though I may not know what you've been told, Miss Rose, I can assure you it is all a lie." Amy looks into his eyes. At first she seems confused. Then she realizes what's going on. She's been through this routine what has felt like millions of times in the past few years. It's the same thing once again- Sonic has a new friend.

"And _you _are?" she demands, still tearing at the cusps of the eyes. "Did Sonic tell you about me before?"

"My name is Koset, thank you, but no." The way he puts this makes him seem experienced in dealing with strangers. "Sonic has not once mentioned you." Amy subsequently throws the azure hedgehog a few disappointed glares.

"What are you doing on Highway Zero?" Tails asks before adding, "And why did GUN even _let _you roam on the highway?" Amy walks to the guard rail and points to a series of armored vehicles at a check point in the street below.

Voice still shaky and weak, she says, "The military's evacuating most of the civilians to some camp outside of the city." Tails looks at Sonic. A helicopter makes a flyover above the anthros.

"You said because of Sonic, right?" Amy rolls her eyes as she thinks. But the fact that Sonic is involved, that she cannot help but feel forlorn.

"Well, for the most part, yeah, Tails." Her tone is still snarky, regardless of the saturnine premonitions.

"Sonic couldn't have done anything to Shadow, Amy. You know he couldn't have," Tails calmly assures. "Where did you hear-"

"What a terrible surprise!" All four turn around in an instant. That voice... There's no way they should have heard that voice. On the top of an apartment building rising over the highway is...

"_Sonic?_" Amy throws both of her hands over her mouth. Tails is equally awed, but can't bring himself to make the same movements. Koset's eyes grow steadily as he tries convincing himself he's not losing his mind. Sonic, arms folded, sneers at the sight of the doppelganger.

* * *

"First I get my tail sizzled by the military, now I have to deal with _this _cheap knock off!" he says with a snarl. He beats his hand into his fist. "So _you_ must be the one causing all the trouble, and leaving me to get all the heat!" He points to the second Sonic.

"Sure. Ya got me, buddy!" the fake Sonic returns. Sonic growls. The fake Sonic raises his clenched fist. He opens it. In it is a rubber ball, red and smooth. Outfitted on its face is the steel-grey Eggman Empire insignia, a silhouette of Dr. Eggman's head and iconic moustache. Has Sonic seen it? He has not!

"Don't even _think_ about runnin', man! _No _fake is faster than _me!"_ Each step brings him closer to his spitting image double.

"From me to you, Hedgehog. _Choke on it!_" The ball is thrown, and it beans Sonic between the eyes. The fake turns to the right and makes a run for it. Sonic rubs his face and spots the fake Sonic leaping from building to building, losing sight after a quater-second.

"Darn it! He's getting awa-" He's smacked again by the ball! "_Ahck!_" He stumbles forward. Rubbing the back of his head, he turns around. Bluntly, he screams, "Hey, who threw that?" To his surprise, no one is there. Stupor is all he feels as he walks to the edge of the rooftop. Looking over, again, he sees no one.

"I can't see the other you anymore, Sonic!" Tails shouts as he hovers in the air. Then he's brought down by the ball as it hits his chest. He cries out in pain just as the ball makes an arc in the air and comes back down. It hits him again with a _**snap! **_before bouncing off of his back and down towards Amy and Koset. Koset follows its movements with the eyes of a hawk. He grabs his light saber, but he doesn't pull it out. Instead, he keeps his hand on the grip, waiting for it to near him.

Tails floats back down to the road, clutching his chest and is helped by Sonic. An adrenaline-high Sonic hears a small bounce and jumps in a 180. He attempts to catch the ball, but is, surprisingly, _too slow_. The demonic thing makes another arc, this time over Sonic, and shoots for Amy. The pink hedgehog doesn't even see the speedy ball in time; it smacks her in the cheek and sends her tumbling to the ground.

"That thing's possessed!" Sonic cries. Stuck in midair, the ball rapidly rotates every direction while Sonic, Tails, and Amy run for it. As they lunge at it, the ball pops up in the air, causing the three to fall into each other's faces.

"Hi, Tails! Hi, Amy! Nice to meet ya! _Now let's get that stupid ball!_"

"We're trying, Sonic. That thing's just too good," Tails moans. They pull each other up in a three-some effort.

"Amy! Use your hammer as a bat!" Koset shouts. They are surprised, but not as much as they are when they see the green hedgehog being dragged by the Egg Ball he caught. In his metal hand is the Egg Ball, pulling the hedgehog along. "Hurry, this has more power to it than I-_aaagh_- I expected!"

Amy takes out the Piko Piko Hammer. With the pose of a batter ready for the pitcher to throw, she positions herself. Koset, being dragged in every direction the Egg Ball rushes for, tries winding up. The Egg Ball puts up a fierce fight, but Koset is able to send it Amy's way.

With a _**whack!**_, Amy hits the Egg Ball into the sky. It disappears in the overcast blanket.

Sonic, hand over his eyes, whistles as he loses sight of the Egg Ball. "Sweet! Nice arm, Ames!"

_Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! _Count one second, and inside it all four are beaned by the Egg Ball!

"_No!_" is the only thing this hedgehog can say. What would you say if you were getting your ass handed to you by a ball? Sonic rubs his fingers over his face, but that only makes it sting more. Until... What's that- something on his forehead! It's the Egg Ball. He flicks it, and it jiggles. He flicks it, and it jiggles- again. And again. The game ends- he grabs and pulls it with all his might, but the thing is stuck. Heels planted in the ground, he tries ripping the silly thing off of his head, only to lose his grip and go flying back onto his bum. Tails runs up to Sonic and pulls with him, but the situation deteriorates further.

"This device will self destruct in T-minus 20 seconds." It was from some female monotonic voice, and- it came from the ball itself!

"_Shhhhhooooot!_" Sonic pulls harder and harder, and success! The ball is off of his forehead- but getting it stuck on his right hand!

"Fifteen...Fourteen...Thirteen..." Sonic begins to sweat as he tries to find a way to scrape off the ball. Then it hits him. Why does he have to _scrape _it off? Why scrape when you can _shake?_

He flaps his arm around as fast as he can, providing just a bit of lift. They shake faster and faster. A gale blows from the rapid movement, becoming hurricane strength. The ground underneath their feet begins to rumble as pieces of construction go flying off of the roof. To put it in no better way, Sonic is boogieing for his life.

"Six...Five...Four..." Success! The ball's in the air and off his face. "Three..." He grabs the nearest traffic cone, "Two..." He swings. "One..." The ball and cone go skyward. "Bye-Bye."

_**BAAAAAM!**_

The diminutive Egg Ball detonates with kilotons of fury. The blast shatters windows across the city. Despite being far above some high rises' rooftops and even aerial antennae, many buildings near the blast are damaged. The entire earth shakes from the force of the explosion. The glow fades, and a pressure wave dies out over the horizon.

'Tis humiliating and frightening, and you can judge for yourself: Sonic the Hedgehog has trumped Dr. Robotnik times innumerable, and has destroyed his deadliest machines, mechs, and mechanical monsters- all of which were capable of taking over the planet many times over on their own- yet the hedgehog was nearly done in _by a ball_. Less a tragicomic farce and more a tad of proof the doctor has put forth all the wrong methods to fight, perhaps, but ah, that is another tale!

"You did it!" Amy cheers. Sonic pants as he struggles to catch his breath. As Amy nears him, he puts his hand on her shoulder, taking a few more breaths.

"Ok... That was... embarrassing," Sonic sighs. He exchanges smiles with Amy and Tails. Koset, however, isn't in the mood.

"Save the hugs and kisses for later! We have to find that look-alike," Koset reminds.

"No need to tell me twice." Sonic looks out into the city. Today, it all appears grimy and downtrodden. Sirens that usually ring throughout the urban environment have gone silent. The city that never sleeps is unconscious. The greyish-brown clouds in the noon background, filtering only a bit of sunlight through, send an almost apocalyptic message to the four heroes as they stand on the empty Highway Zero, unaware that the world around them is truly going to Hell.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**End of Episode 3**

"**Race For The Emerald"**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

_Official Soundtrack_

**Theme of Sonic: Evil Reborn Zero**

Clintone- "_**Ultraterrestrial**_"


	13. The King's Pawns

**(13) The King's Pawns**

* * *

**[Central City]**

The dusk sky over the capital city of the United Federation is blood red with streaks of clouds. An exception to this conspiracy theory novel-laden sky is the quasigothic super spy, Rouge the Bat. Down there lies an unassuming white building mingling with all the others, and it's that one that Rouge swoops for. She coasts to a stop.

"This is Rouge. Report."

"Agent Rouge, we are receiving a report of a jewel theft at the Central City Museum," the female operator reports. Already, Rouge's interest is piqued. "The robbery occurred 15 minutes ago and the only major thing stolen, a Chaos Emerald."

"That's never a good sign," she replies, "especially considering there's so many other brilliant, radiant, perfectly-cut, flawless, multi-million-ring gems insi-"

"No, other gems were taken-"

"Damn, beat me to it."

"-but the fact the burglar took special interest in taking the Chaos Emerald is troubling, and it has concerned many top GUN leaders since it has taken place in light of the events at Adabat. As of this very moment, there is a substantial number of GUN agents on the scene, so the priority has shifted to a lower status. It is entirely your choice to attend to this matter." There is a long moment of silence. "Agent Rouge?" No response. "Agent Rouge!"

The bat is already half a mile away, flying out of Central City.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**[Highway Zero, Empire City]**

Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, the energetic Amy, and the enigmatic Koset are following the signal on the Chaos Detector, keeping a keen eye out for any sign of the Sonic fake.

Tails is the one leading the gang, his eyes permanently fixated on the hologram of the Chaos Detector. Sonic, for his latest friend's sake, is at what he would consider to be a mere jogging speed, but he can see that Koset is straining to remain at his physical limit. Luckily for him, they're nearing the Naka Street exit.

Under the grey skies above and the apocalyptic mood of the dying city staring back at them, the four trek at high speeds along the twisted highway. The problem with Highway Zero is one Sonic and friends certainly have no complaints against. As for those who actually want to _drive_ down the interstate…

"I have to protest, how on earth is this practical?" Koset shouts to the others as he makes his way through a vertical-into-horizontal loop-de-loop fashioned as a Bohr atomic model. "Who's actually going to use this mindless game of a road?' Sonic, enjoying the roller coaster of Highway Zero, loses his smile. It's replaced by a somewhat stumped look as he shrugs, running backwards at a slower rate.

"Don't ask me, bro. If you think _this_ is useless, you should see Mobius!" is the azure hedgehog's reply. He turns around and boosts his speed.

Koset's face expands in shock, and then he asks out of curiosity, "Hmm…what _is _Mobius?" Sonic chuckles. The four fly over an unfinished gap in the road and hit the other side running. Koset stumbles, but Sonic logs the attempt to grab his wrist and bring him up to the azure hedgehog's own velocity.

"Long story, man! A few a' my friends lives there_, _two of them _rule there_, actually. At the rate things are goin' now, you just might meet 'em soon enough!"

"Haha! You sure get around, Sonic!" Koset adventurously replies. "I can't wait to see how deeply your fate impacts my own."

At last, they see the o'erhanging green sign with the words 'NAKA STREET' printed on it in white, bold letters. All four come to a stop.

"Should be around here, guys!" says Tails. "I doubt it's on the highway itself, so it's a good idea to check around on the rooftops!" In tandem with Tails's words is the fact that the highway is just about level with many building tops in this section of town. It's the residential district, the proverbial 'wrong side of the tracks', and most high-rises have given way to apartments, tenements, and other smaller complexes.

* * *

Sonic and Amy are together.

"So, Sonic, where'you been?" Sonic throws the rosy hedgehog a confused look before realizing what she had asked. He smiles- it's his iconic smirk.

"Talk about a long story!" Amy tries cuddling up closer to him. In response, Sonic takes a step to the left.  
So, Sonic explains each boring detail. Amy is shocked to learn about Sonic's injury, as well as learn that it's the reason for his long absence. She explains to him that because of his constant travels, she never once considered the ever-moving hedgehog would be cooped up in one spot for so long. Had she known, she would have given Sonic a 'lot of loving support'. Forevermore, Sonic will be thankful Tails told as few people about his injury as he did.

"Got it!" Tails cries. The other three look back and run to the girder. "Under here!" They jump onto a roof over the side. The space between the roof and the bottom of the highway is no more than six feet. In front of them, waving the ruby Chaos Emerald, is Tails.

"That's one," Koset sighs. He looks off into the metropolis with concern. "Listen, I think we should get-"

Before he can finish, a troop of Egg Pawns crash down from the highway above. All are armed with lances. The Egg Pawns land on their feet and form a line, lances forward.

Sonic sighs in disdain. "Leave these cans to me." Not that his friends mind. They watch, fur blowing in front of their faces, as Sonic speeds towards the six pawns, knocking them all back and destroying them in rapid succession. He wraps into a ball and smashes into each one with hundreds of thousands of pounds of force. Likewise, none of the pawns can withstand his attack. Upon impact, or in some cases after being shot backwards, they explode into a multitude of pieces in weak, debris-filled blasts. Their weapons clank on the ground.

The only folly is when Sonic makes a high jump after obliterating all robots, hitting the underside of the bridge, resulting in a nasty bump on his noggin.

"Piece a'- ow!- cake! So, his pawns are out, so where's the king?" His response is an earth shaking _**thud**_.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Sonic**

**Evil Reborn Zero**

**Episode 4**

**Jynxed**


	14. Ultra Sonic

**Episode 4: Jynxed**

**(14) Ultra Sonic**

* * *

"Well, well, well!" comes from his disgusting voice. "If it isn't that dirty, little rat and his scurrying little cohorts."

Sonic laughs as he examines the new killing machine. "Look who finally decided to crash the party! Long time, no see, Eggman!"

Koset immediately looks attentive. Under his breath, he whispers with disappointment, "So _this_ is the one they call Eggman…"

Eggman doesn't even chuckle. He raises a half clenched fist, speaking into Koset's mutterances. "It hasn't been long enough for my tastes. But for what I have planned for _you_, Hedgehog, we _had _to meet again someday." The Egg-Mobile relaxes inside of the cockpit of the doctor's new mech.

The head closes, and the dull, red eyes of the Egg Rex stare at the anthros. Sonic scoffs as he cocks his head the side, non-existent eyebrow raised.

"Eggman!" he cries in bored surprise. "Who the heck cut your budget? This thing's a freaking wreck!"

Eggman folds his arms. "So you say," he replies. A blue streak tears through the center chest of the Egg Rex, ripping off some of its metal scales. Sonic re-emerges on a building far behind the robot dinosaur.

"You were _saying?_" The Egg Rex falls flat on its front, its stubby, grey reptilian feet giving out. A cloud of smoke belches out from the enter and exit wounds.

Instead of going on another one of his usual madness-filled rants, Eggman smiles malevolently. In the darkened cockpit, he punches in a line of code on the control panel. He stops for a moment when he hears a _cling_ above him.

"Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all week!" brags Sonic as he bows to his friends on the top of the downed Egg Rex. Eggman can only grumble as he continues his mission, hoping that irony will fill him with pleasure. Finally, he taps one key.

_Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!_ Sonic takes a tumble off of the head, landing on his stomach. He looks back in horror as he and the others watch the Egg Rex come back to life. Its stubs of limbs bring the mech back to its short feet. As it begins to stand, white markings, all tattoo like in appearance, begin spreading on the Egg Rex. The Rex itself turns from a junkyard silver to a midnight black. The contrast becomes greater between the marks and the skin. The dull, cheap screen eyes of the Egg Rex turn entirely black.

"Whoa, Eggman!" Sonic gets to his feet. The rounded claws on its arms are replaced by almost atomically sharp spikes to the point they look as if they can stab a hole in space. The same happens on the Rex's feet. On its featureless head, a giant, sharp 'R' is embedded as one of the markings.

"Behold! I present to you, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Death-Egg Rex!" The tail, outfitted with small spikes all 'round, **slams** into Sonic. The impact thrusts him into and through a bridge support. Sonic crashes into the side of a brick apartment.

"Sonic!" Amy and Tails cry. They begin towards him. One of the Death Egg Rex's feet crushes the roof, the top floors, and, in dust-filled crash, the entire building. Koset emerges out of the cloud, trailed by dust. As gravity takes over and pulls him down, he prepares to take out his light saber. At this angle, he can easily take off the head of the Rex- _**SLAM!**_

With unearthly reflexes, the Death Egg Rex had swung around in a complete 180 degree about-face and smacked him into the pavement below. The sidewalk and road cracks, breaking into a myriad of large pieces.

Sonic lands on the ground as small pieces of brick rain around him. Largely uninjured, he looks on at the roaring Death Egg Rex. "Looks like this won't be that easy." As Eggman turns his super machine around, the Death Egg Rex rushes towards the hedgehog, crushing the ground with each step. Sonic takes a step back to get a better bearing, ready to strike as soon as the Death Egg Rex is close enough. Then he jumps when he realizes it would be no use. The Rex's sharpened claws ram into the apartment complex, driving deep inside with a thunderous crash. Sonic, rising in midair, looks down in dismay as he sees how devastating the damage had been.

"Sonic, he's too strong in your current state!" Koset warns, having gotten himself back onto his feet.

Sonic chuckles a bit as he lands on the top of another building. "Dude, you know who you're talkin' to?"

"I do not doubt your abilities, Sonic, but this machine is capable of taking you out even if you're careful!" the emerald hedgehog shouts back. Head hanging, he calls out, "Tails!" Tails looks, alert. "Throw Sonic the emerald!"

The young fox wastes no time and, the emerald firmly in his hand, makes a powerful toss towards Sonic. This takes Eggman by surprise.

"_Whaaat?!_ You mean to tell me there was a _Chaos Emerald _in this city?!" He slams his control panel twice as he says this. He growls as he tries to maneuver the Rex to snatch the airborne emerald.

He fails.

"Got it!" Sonic then attempts to take in the power of the Chaos Emerald as a substitute for the power rings. That is, until Koset speaks up.

"Chaos Transform! Use Chaos Transform now!" Sonic is perplexed.

"Whaddya mean?" he replies. Koset is now the bewildered one.

"The stain's on you, Sonic! You've used this power before, I know you have! Connect your heart and mind to the power of Chaos!" That's when it hits Sonic. He's talking about _Super Sonic! _But... how?! He only has _one _emerald, so how...

Sonic waits no more. He clutches the Chaos Emerald, closes his eyes, and crosses his arms. The Chaos Emerald begins radiating an ever brighter ruby red. "_Chaos... Trans__**FORM!**_" Inside of a flash of light, Sonic opens his eyes. Energy overtakes his body, overflowing above the walls of his spiritual well.

Nothing happened.

"Urraagh!" He's hit by the Death Egg Rex and skips on the street like a well-thrown stone on water. The pole of a traffic light is what stops his roll. A vacant bird's nest plops onto his head. Sonic shakes his head, and stands up. "What the heck happened, K?"

Koset says, "I expected this." Again, he rubs his chin, mentally cursing himself for not warning Sonic. "This time, you can't take your focus off of balancing Chaos! Go again!"

Sonic, doubting whether Koset even knows what he's talking about or has a firm grip on reality, tries again. "Chaos Transform!" Another flash, then another, then another. There's one final flash, and this one sustains itself. Tails and Amy shield their eyes as the light peaks in brightness. Koset looks on, a bit more relieved by this attempt.

When the glow fades, Sonic appears the same. He would appear the same, had it not been for the close blue aura around him.

Looking at his hands, he sees the Death Egg Rex bring its foot down on him. With an earth-crushing blow, it appears Eggman had stamped out the speedy hedgehog once and for all.

"Don't worry about him," Koset states, keeping a concerned Tails and mortified Amy back. "He was able to keep the_ ultra form _stable this time."

"Gnahahahahaaa!" Eggman claps as he sees the foot of the tattooed metal dino firmly in the center of a crater of broken pavement where Sonic once stood. He is not so pleased when Sonic, **Ultra Sonic**, blows through the foot. The glowing hedgehog seems to float in mid-air as he levels with the cockpit of the Death Egg Rex.

"Boy! Sure feels like déjà vu!" he throws. He falls to the ground, sticking a landing.

Eggman is less enthusiastic in his response. "I'll say." He drops the moment of defeat and commands the Rex to take a bite out of Ultra Sonic. As the jaws come down, Ultra Sonic bursts into its mouth and down its throat. "Oh _no _you don't! _Gastrolaser, fire!_"  
The belly of the Death Egg Rex glows softly. An enormous and unnecessarily loud laser blast roars out of its mouth, blowing the hedgehog into the air.

"_Phew!_" Sonic covers his nose and flaps his hand. His voice raised by distance, he screams, "Your pet's got some bad indigestion!"

"Just be glad it came out through the _attic_, my friend!" Eggman chortles. The smile is wiped off his face when Ultra Sonic comes down on the Death Egg Rex's snout, nearly fusing it and its jaw together. But the hedgehog sees that the machine easily recoiled from his attack. Sonic runs up the nose and kicks the space between the Rex's eyes. With a backflip, the powered hedgehog hits the ground and runs backwards down the street.

He's disturbed. "K-koset! Whaddyou do to my speed?!" He's only running at a fraction of his normal speed.

"I'll explain it to you later, just stop him before you run out of rings!"

Sonic remembers he had brought five rings with him in the case he might need them. Chaos Emerald hunting is, after all, not the most cooperative business in the world. When he checks the r-card, it rings up as having one ring left, and most of it is depleted.

"Shoot!" As he realizes his misfortune, Eggman snickers, then erupts into an all-out laughing riot. He rises out of the cockpit.

"How cruel fate can be! I, Dr. Robotnik, just so happen to have procured a spare power ring of my ow-" he brags, holding up the golden power ring. Ultra Sonic snatches it out of his hands. "Ah... h-hey! You thieving bilge rat!"

"You don't mind if I borrow this, do you?" Ultra Sonic retorts. Just as the last of his original ring vanishes, the new ring fills him with much needed energy.


	15. Whack That Mole!

**Episode 4: Jynxed**

**(15) Whack That Mole!**

* * *

**[Mystic Ruins, Near the Southern Jungle]**

Rouge flies over almost monstrous mountains and volcanos. There, in the distance, is Tails's ruins-based workshop

Where is Angel Island? The first thing that tips her off that something is horribly wrong is that _she hadn't seen it_. Sticking out like the world's sorest thumb in front of a magnifying glass, Angel Island is a piece of land covered with jungles, waterfalls, and mountains _**suspended in midair**_. In the center of it is yet another floating island, one housing the shrine to the holy Master Emerald.

It's large enough to hold a modern city, yet Rouge couldn't see it at any distance, and that's what disturbs her. For the second time in as many days, she feels dread as she imagines that something terrible may have occurred on the floating island. Her suspicions prove true when, after flying over a blizzard-ridden mountain, she spots Angel Island.

Fallen.

* * *

Continuing on to the Master Emerald shrine, she expects to be hit with déjà vu. Again, she's right. At the foot of a great number of stone steps lies a beaten Knuckles. Rouge lands next to him. The echidna groans in pain, holding his side.

"Get out of here," he strains to say. "He's still here, you've got to... go." A troubled Rouge doesn't even budge. But instead of helping Knuckles up, she runs up the stairs. At the top of the shrine, she sees what she was hoping she wouldn't. The Master Emerald has been shattered.

Rouge cries out in pain as she feels the force of a heavy block of stone ram into her. She's brought to the ground. "What kind of jugheaded…" When she is able to look back, she sees a violet mole cracking up behind her.

"_Whaahahaaha! Hahahaa! Whoohoohoohooo_! Uh, I didn't break any bones, did I?" Rouge doesn't even respond. He then goes back to laughing like a maniac.

"I tried warning you!" Knuckles shouts. "Next time I say go, GO." Knuckles stands up with ease, brushing off various packs of dust off of his arms. "Mole boy's mine!"

"Sigh." The ropy mole raises his hand. Enveloping it is a heavy and fire-like purple aura. As Knuckles begins running up the steps, they all flatten out, becoming a ramp. The echidna slips and falls, sliding back down. A Sonic-esque smirk perpetually plastered onto his face, the mole spots Rouge, emerged from under the slab. His hand still fiery with energy, he points a half clenched fist in the direction of the spy. The stones under her feet begin elevating and descending erratically, throwing Rouge off of her feet.

"Darn you, Jynx!" Knuckles shouts. Jynx turns around, his slick smile still on his face.

"Wittle 'chidna get a boo-boo?" Another round of laughter. In his frenzy, Jynx nearly drops something in one of his hands.

Rouge's quick eyes had seen its shape, color, and composition. "Is that..." Jynx, again, openly shows his gem to the world. "It is!"

"What's wrong?" Knuckles growls, not taking his rage-filled eyes off of the mole.

"_That_ must be the Chaos Emerald from the Central City Museum!" Jynx frowns as he hears Rouge state this.

Like a cartoon character, he revs up his legs and blasts off. "Gotta jam!" Jynx tilts his head towards the sky. A purple aura surrounds him, similar to the one around his hand earlier. His feet leave the grass. He begins to float. He's higher and higher in the air now. Knuckles looks on in dismay as Jynx reaches an untouchable height.

"You know this loser?" Rouge asks from the ground. Knuckles, arms folded and frown planted on his face, scoffs and looks away.

"Don't even joke like that." He watches as Jynx takes off, slowly flying away. "He just wants to get _dropped _is all." The pissed echidna then looks back at the broken emerald.

"And what happened to the emerald?" Rouge is more disappointed than she normally would around a shattered gem.

"_Don't touch it!_" Knuckles pushes Rouge away from the one sliver of emerald that remains. "I had to break it before Jynx could get his greasy, grassy hands on it. He won't get far, I swear!" He shatters the ground with his fist. "URRG! How could I be so _**CARE**__less?!_"

If sympathy could be read on one's face, for Rouge, it would be written with invisible ink. "Good ole' Knucklebutt. Always failing, as usual."

"Like _you _could have done a better-"

"Tell ya what. I'll help you get your precious emerald back together."

"_I don't __**need**__ your help!_" Knuckles barks.

"I wasn't _asking_, Knucklebutt, I _said _I'll help you. Whether you want me to or not." Knuckles growls at Rouge's words. If his loathing for Jynx weren't so strong, he'd been in a fight with Rouge right now.

"You just want the Master Emerald for yourself, you bat. Don't deny it!" Rouge doesn't even want to respond. She stands, nose in air and arms folded, tuning out Knuckles's suspicions. "Sonic may tell you I'm slow, but don't be fooled. I'm smarter than you think, and I can see right through you." Rouge remains silent. "I know you too well, Rouge."

Finally, Knuckles pauses. "Well? Is that a yes, or a yes?" Rouge tauntingly asks.

"I said I don't need your-"

"Fine then. I'll just find all the emerald pieces myself." She struts in front of Knuckles, who has a head vein that is dangerously close to bursting. "Maybe sell it for a few million rings, or make it all the pieces into a necklace... Or maybe, _juuuust maybe_, I could just give them all to Jynx!" she then says, flashing her brand new 'Jynx' card.

"All right, all right! You can help!" the echidna dirtily growls, his voice a crescendo of rage.

"Why thank-"

"_But know that I'm keeping my eye on you every second of every minute of every hour of every day! Got it?!_" Knuckles is up in Rouge's face while jabbering this. He then quickly turns away and walks towards the edge of the shrine's island. Frantic, as if the world around him is collapsing, he quickly and without break wheezes, "That joker flew off in this direction. He didn't come in very fast, and he didn't go out fast either, so he couldn't have gotten far."

* * *

Rouge wasn't listening. She doesn't care about this. Jynx is an inconvenience. An obstacle. He's not an important factor. All she needs are the Master Emerald shards and their healing power.

To hell with Jynx. To hell with Knuckles. To hell with his Master Emerald. Right now, all Rouge needs is to be selfishly selfless, and anyone, anything, any situation that can help her achieve her goal is useful enough for her. Anything that can't should just stay out of her way.


	16. City Escape

**Episode 4: Jynxed**

**(16) City Escape**

* * *

Ultra Sonic has seven seconds to take down the Death Egg Rex. His odds are slim considering he wasn't doing a terrible amount of damage to begin with. With six swift steps back, he readies himself for a homing attack. Meanwhile, Amy smashes out a huge, bolt-like fixture on the top of the leg with her Piko Piko Hammer. Koset slices open a large slit in the damaged area. Tails immediately flies into the body of the Rex through its wound.

The tail of the Rex swings at Sonic. He dodges it, grabs onto one of its metal scales, and begins a running ascent towards the head of the beast.

In the pitch darkness of the Rex's mechanical innards, Tails crawls in a small hall cavity just barely large enough to hold the little fox. He looks around for any possible opening. He sees one. Ultra Sonic shoots into the snout of the Rex, bouncing off as the Death Egg Rex recoils. Little damage, but several more good shots could do the trick. He doesn't have time for several more good shots. He doesn't have time for _any_ more shots.

The alarm blares inside the cockpit, amplified by its claustrophobic walls. On a green, gridded screen, the computer warns Eggman of the earlier intrusion.

"That foolish fox can't possibly be thinking of..." he stutters.

"EMP bomb's in, Amy!" He wiggles out of the crack, and lands next to Amy. Eggman, listening over an exoskeletal microphone, nearly jumps through the head of the Death Metallic Rex.

"_**EMP?!**_"

There is a _thump _inside the machine. All electronics in the cockpit explode in stranded white bursts. Eggman doesn't even waste his time. The Egg Mobile shoots out of the head of the Death Egg Rex before its afflicted by the EMP blast.

The Rex slouches over and out of its mouth rushes dozens of rings. The rush of rings drenches the glowing hedgehog. One last ring falls onto and rolls off of the pile of power rings.

All rings disappear in a glittery flash. Ultra Sonic stands with a green orb rotating around him.

The Death Egg Rex, once all rings are expelled, becomes grey once again. All markings vanish. It's the Egg Rex.

Ultra Sonic steps on its snout and, midair, comes down as a ball, ripping through the head and out the chest. The Egg Rex implodes instantly.

"Smell ya later, Robuttnik!" Ultra Sonic tauntingly calls out as he four-finger salutes the flying egg.

Eggman, riding high in the Egg Mobile away from the city, is frustrated enough at his loss to say the least. He disappears in the winter clouds blanketing the city.

"Awesome job, Sonic!" Tails cheers. Before their hands connect for a high-five, police sirens blare out. Half the city had seen the battle. GUN is arriving in as many numbers as they can bring.

"So Amy, _**why **_are these guys chasing me again?!" Sonic screams rhetorically.

Tails then remembers that their only way out is sitting in the middle of the ocean. "We gotta get back to the Tornado! Sonic, you think you can save some rings?" Ultra Sonic's aura and power orb recedes. He holds up a chain of unused rings hanging on his arms.

"Tinkering with Chaos Emeralds again?" Sonic asks.

"I'll explain when we get back. Let's go!"

Vulcan cannons begin screaming from the barrels of machine guns as sleek, Eggman-inspired jets tear through the sky. Bullets explode on the ground-feet, inches, millimeters away from striking the anthros.

They reverse their steps on Highway Zero and make way towards the coastal loop once more.

Sonic spots a line of GUN 'Mosquito' model drones. He grins and jumps. Wrapping into a ball, he breaks them all in a series of homing attacks. With a flip at the end, he lands on a metal platform of a miniature water tower. GUN shouldn't mind losing a few of these...

Koset, behind Amy, slides to a stop and protracts his light saber. Behind him are scores of drones and Class A mechs. He extends his arm, pointing the glowing sword at the machines as the press onwards. Upon reaching a minimum distance, several blurry strikes are made. Koset, still holding out the light saber, then smoothly retracts the blade and sets it to his side. He turns around and continues on.

The GUN robots fall apart into cleanly sliced mechanical pieces.

After the four reach the main expanse of the downtown area of Empire City, GUN robots pull back. The Vulcan 2 fighter jets disperse. GUN gives up.

The four anthros make it to the over-water U-turn on Highway Zero. On the water's surface, they see, is the Tornado 1.

"Which workshop should we go to, Sonic?" Tails asks his friend.

"Which ones are there?"

"Besides my Mystic Ruins workshop, I have others in Shamar, Station Square, Gaul, Osea, and even one near Thin Ice- although we should probably steer clear of _that_ one. Oh! And there's a few in-" _**Confronted**_ by all these options, Sonic chooses to return to the Mystic Ruins shop. Sonic takes Amy- not his choice- and Tails grabs Koset. The four race back to the Tornado without further incident.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**End of Episode 4**

**Jynxed**


	17. Android

**(17) Android**

* * *

The Tornado makes an easy landing- although Sonic opts to jump off prematurely and now trails alongside the plane- on the falsely earthen runway, slowing to a snail's crawl as it approaches the doors of the workshop.

Over the next few moments, Tails sets the Tornado inside the workshop, where it descends to a lower hanger. The four aren't even inside for more than thirty seconds when the Chaos Detector starts pinging. Sonic has already begun his pre-run stretches. Everyone, however, is fixated at the sight of the mass of rock and tropical flora at the edge of the ruins. Angel Island has fallen once more. This has happened, and, because they know Knuckles is capable enough, they mention it not once.

"Uh oh!" Tails checks and rechecks the Detector. "Great, half the rings are gone. It ate through half our stores!"

"I thought you said it should be at full power for _days_," a surprised Sonic replies as he lets himself fall onto a railing. Tails shakes his head as he fails to think of a reason.

"But there's still a decent signal being picked up." Taking the moment to access the software of the device, the frustrated genius fox is concerned when he discovers, and a notice on the screen reflects, that nothing is wrong. "OK, that's just...strange."

"Where's this one?" Koset questions. Tails activates the hologram feature. At the present moment, several objects are picked up.

"The best bet right now is one in the north, near Olde Mobia." He pinpoints the signal to as accurately as he can. "Good Hope! It's at Good Hope!"

"And that is..." Amy rolls her hands.

"An ancient freedom fighter base," Sonic answers. "Aw man, this is gettin' interesting!" Koset stares at the results for a moment. To him, something about this signal, compared to others, is entirely bizarre. Though he knows it's not a wise decision, he remains quiet about his concerns.

"So these freedom fighters," he passively asks in a most unsuspicious way.

"They were these super resilient people who fought against this power hungry ancestor of Dr. Eggman, but most of them were killed in this _huge_ battle at Good Hope about a thousand years ago. Eggman's ancestor was defeated at the last minute by a small group of survivors," Tails explains in a professor-like fashion. Koset listens intensely, soaking up every word. Sonic, playing around with the Detector, looks north. Amy tries to cuddle with him, only for Sonic to rush outdoors. He drops the Chaos Detector in his hurry. "Call it fate, but it turns out Sonic, Knuckles, and me are the direct descendants of the group that defeated him all those years ago! And Eggman is the descendent of the tyrant, of course. Our ancestors got into scuffles with his occasionally since then, and we're the last ones to pick up the fight, but that's where it all began." Amy pouts as Sonic mocks her with a childish taunt.

"Heh." _So this place does have its share of history. Interesting to note that this took place a thousand years ago._

After a missed swing from her hammer, Amy groans, "I _hate _it when he does that."

"Miss Rose!" Amy quickly loses her miffed face, replacing it by one that offers friendship as she turns. Koset then continues, "May I call you that?"

"Please, call me Amy!" is the cheerful reply.

"Amy, right. You said back in Central City that Sonic killed Shadow, but _we_ know that's not true. You claimed it was the news?"

"Yeah, it was on the news! They said that-"

"_I_ killed him!"

* * *

Sonic slams the back door, panting and sliding down on it.

"Guys, we got company!" Splinters and wood fly across the room. The front door's gone- there he is, the doppelganger, exiting a kicking stance before jumping in a backflip onto the plateau. Surrounding him are twenty two other robots, from Egg Pawns, to enhanced E-Series droids. Each of the heroes then rushes outside with Sonic taking the lead. Immediately they all stand ready to do battle.

"S-Sonic... He looks just like you..." Amy has already seen the hedgehog, but still is disturbed by their perfect similarities.

"Master Robotnik told me about you!" 'Master Robotnik' sounds so damn irritating coming from his mouth, with Sonic's voice, with Sonic's cheerful tone. "And I read a full report of your abilities. If you're really that weak, ya mighta just give up now, especially if Shadow..."

"Shadow?! So there _is_ a connection! What did you do to Shadow?" Sonic shouts, pointing to his new opponent. Instead of any dramatic line, the Sonic doppelganger rests one of his feet on a small rock and looks down with something of a coughy chuckle. His apparent apathy leads nowhere as Sonic continues to growl, yet this perturbs him. Tails sees sweat on Sonic's temple, a sight he hasn't seen in a long time. The involuntary action is contagious.

"I popped 'im!" He snickers once. "It's not like it was _hard_ or anything, and after all that Master Robotnik said about 'im being the 'ultimate life thing' or whatever, I was kinda disappointed. I think it only lasted about a half hour too." Sonic stomps his foot and growls as he turns away, clamping his eyes shut, finally believing that what Amy said is true, that Shadow had been killed.

"So you think you can beat me, is that it, faker?" Sonic swings his arm down. This time he double laughs, but little sound comes out of his mouth.

"First of all, introductions. I'm not 'faker.' I'm the chief Comette, and Master Robotnik's most prized creation, Sonic Android!"

_Android... So he's an android, no wonder! _"Man, you got some nerve!" Next thing Sonic sees is the ground. Sonic hits several of the wooden rails, bringing many with him in his fall. They stack up on top of his back.

"Wow, you can't be serious. That easy?" The Android never sees the hammer coming down on him. He hits the earth on all fours. Amy stands above him, bent over and spitting in his face.

"You may look like Sonic, but I can tell from a thousand miles away that you're a true creep!" Amy pulls herself back in for another whack. Faster than she can blink, the Android slips behind her. Faster than _Amy_ can blink.

"Amy, look out!" But not Sonic. He jumps out to rush the thing, but is too slow. Sonic Android double-foot kicks Amy forwards. Instantly he hits the ground and rolls, knocking over Tails. He grabs his body and throws him into Amy before she had even hit the ground. Before the fox can fall, the android runs, shoulder first, into him and pushes him into the side of the ridge his workshop sits on.

"He's fast." Koset taps his light saber handle, waiting for Sonic Android to get in range for a swipe. He too is at the ground, and all he felt has been a snap of pain across the back of his body. He rolls over. _How'd he get past me so easily?! Unless Sonic is that fast..._

Sonic Android stops sharp and dusts off his hands. Rolling his eyes, he says, "Wow. Easier than I thought possible. Some team you have here, man." In a spin-dash form, Sonic rubs against Sonic Android's cheek before the machine thrusts his body forward. Only one foot hits the ground, and it's this one that pushes Sonic back towards his Android. A sidestep and Sonic Android has dodged him. "Too slow."

"_AAAuugh!_" Sonic stumbles and stops when Sonic Android gut-smashes him, wrapped into a ball again and, colliding with the azure anthro's stomach, sends Sonic into the air. Amy comes back in, swinging the hammer with full fury. Sonic Android raises his clenched fist, with it stopping the hammer. In a swift about face, he throws a brutal right hook Amy's way, shooting her into the side of the workshop. She slides off the wall, her Piko Piko Hammer dropped by her side. Several tiles break off and land on and near her.

"Pathetic. This is _absolutely_ pathetic. Shadow put up an _at_ _least_ **somewhat** decent fight. But then again, Master Eggman has fed us data of all your moves and abilities." He looks at his fellow 'bots. One of them is a Rockette. Of all the robots with the android, Rockette is the only one that actually seems excited to be here. With a sharp command, he barks, "E-176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, and 182-5241, make yourselves useful. Get that emerald. Pawns, follow them." He points at the workshop entrance. "Tear that place apart until you find it. E-183, 184, and 185, destroy those meatbags. Now."

"Have fun," Rockette, E-182-5241, monotonously replies.

"_I said get that emerald!_" Sonic Android explodes. Rockette joins its comrades in their raid of the workshop. It's Sonic's friends who stand in their way. Their ascent to their feet is without strain as they were only slightly weakened by the android's attacks.

Sonic Android turns towards Sonic. "Now then, any new tricks up your sleeve, ol'dog?"

As a sweatdrop forks at his nose, a lowly growling Sonic eyes an escape into the jungle. Blink, he's gone. Sonic Android has already responded. Sonic skids to a total stop. In front of him is the grinning Sonic Android.

"Urgh..." he grunts, looking in every direction for another way out to trick Sonic Android. "Drat, that's not good..."

"Oh, that's not good for you indeed! Now I know you're dying for an explanation about why I'm kicking your ass. You see, the good Doctor fed me data of all your abilities and, learning from what he claims are 'past mistakes', built me and the other Comettes specifically, not to _match_ you, but to _exceed_ you in every possible way."

A ring flashes in Sonic's hand; Now his fist has thrown his doppelganger into the brush behind him, but the android plowed his own fist into Sonic's face. Fingers rip up the dirt. With a quick and snide sigh, Sonic watches as all of his rings fall to his side. What almost brings him a smile is the sight of Sonic Android, prone, and a circle of rings around him as well.

"Y'know..." Sonic pushes himself to his feet. "Without rings, you're vulnerable." Success, he's on his feet. While he pants, his android clone puts his feet to the sky and leaps to his toes with a perfect double front flip. No such heavy breaths come from him.

"I was gonna say the same to you." He chuckles grimly as Sonic growls. Sonic rockets forth, stops, and roundhouse kicks Sonic Android. The android stops his chase and dives. Sonic jumps off his fist and, both hands grabbed, slams him into the ground. Vicious gale, a vicious gale follows. Sonic Android's quills blow into his face. No longer is Sonic here. All Sonic Android can do is smile.

Sonic is five miles away when he looks back. _This guy's even better than Metal Sonic. Man... I know I should be scared, but... this is exciting! _He stops quick in front of a rock face, throwing up loads of dirt in a crescent. A war cry, and it's his voice! Sonic somersaults as two red sneakers break through the skyward dust and tears apart the scarred earth. A fist kills a flower near Sonic's heads before he wraps himself up and rolls. Sonic Android picks up the balled hedgehog, twists, and slams him back into the ground. One... two... three... four... fiv- Sonic pops out and comes back down. He hits Sonic Android's palm and is plowed back down into his hole once more. Dust sifts through the cracks.

_Yikes, this guy's __**way**__ better than Metal Sonic..._

"You've been under for a while no-" Slash! Sonic Android back flips. Sonic plants himself on the ground, unwrapped and hunched, before standing erect.

Sonic Android shoves his two fists into the dirt and pushes himself back to his feet in one hydraulic push-up. Sonic sneers; Sonic Android grins.

Sonic falls, ball-forward! Sonic Android is already for him. _Clash_. The balled hedgehogs spit off wave after wave of sparks. Sonic banks off.

"Whoa!" Spikes protrude out of Sonic Android's ball form, all crystalline and azure. It punches for him, ripping apart the ground as it goes. "What the heck-" Sonic Android lifts off the earth and homes in for Sonic. It's a blood-spitting scene as Sonic axles over and falls to the ground. Blood drips off his nose, and he knows something bad happened when blood hits the ground. The very sight of blood is something he has not experienced in most of his life's battles.

"I hope that hurt!" Sonic Android howls before laughing. Sonic jumps off his chest and, once at his feet, leaps into the air.

_Ok... this guy is in a whole different league than Metal Sonic._

The tip of his foot touching the ground, he speeds back towards the workshop. Sonic Android runs alongside him.

They begin exchanging blows faster than their feet move, althewhile speeding back. While Sonic strains to match his opponent's sheer speed, it looks to Sonic as if the Android is as strained as if jogging. Fists whiz past his mouth, his nose, his eyes, and he can hear the air snapping with each one. One brushes his quills, and, breaking the flurry of attacks, he bludgeons the android with a quick grab-and-push of an elastic tree branch. Sonic Android falls; he swallows leaves and bark. When Sonic believes himself to be free of this pest, he rockets back to the workshop at an even faster pace. He turns a cliff corner and spots Tails's home; also relieving him is that all of his friends are easily keeping Eggman's robots at bay.

As he prepares for a jumping return, _**a crash. **_A dust cloud erupts into the sky, blocking out the sun. The ground beneath collapses in circular area. Sonic disappears. Free falling from above is Sonic Android, smiling at his handiwork.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Sonic**

**Evil Reborn Zero**

**Episode 5**

**Subversion**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	18. The Next Emerald

**Episode 5: Subversion**

**(18) The Next Emerald**

* * *

"Sonic, n-no!" Tails grunts before he's taken down by a laser blast. Fur smoking, he falls to the ground and moans.

"Sonic!" Amy and Koset cry out before being struck by their opponent robots. Koset returns a blow and kicks an egg-pawn away. Amy's hammer hits another one away. Both robots speed towards and knock off each other.

Sonic Android stands over the crater, wiping away scant dust pulling upwards from the impact. "Oh _WOW! _That was just _plain _pathetic, hedgehog. I thought you'd would've been paying more attention." His attention turns. His cocky grin turns into a violent sneer when he sees the robots still _outside. _some not even standing. "What the- Didn't I just tell you failures to _get that emerald?!_ _Do you __**want**__ to be scrapped?!_"

"Guys, stand ready," Koset warns, standing with his sabre firmly in his hands. "Unless _dying _is alright with you!" The other dokans get to their feet and ready themselves for whatever hell they will face.

"Ah, yes, the inferiors... Hm... If these trash cans really had that much trouble with you, then I... I _guess_ you might be fun to play with for a while." The heroes gasp, stunned to notice that Sonic Android disappeared. Where is he, where did did he go? Amy yelps. He has her, grabbed from under her arms. He lifts her up.

"_Amy!_" Tails cries out. He runs for them, but is barred by the Egg Pawns.

"You always wanted me to accept your hand in marriage, is that right?"

"Screw you, you monster! I love _Sonic!_ Not some windup toy!" She's dropped and smacked across the cheek.

"Oh, so I'm a _windup toy?!_ Ok, Rose. You know what? Your heart is truly set for Sonic. Guess I just need to yank it out!" Amy shudders and her legs lose their- she falls to the ground. Surely this lunatic isn't actually going to-! "I thought I said get that friggin'** emerald!** Oh! Heh, well I stand shamed!" Tails and Koset let out quick, short gasps as they look behind, spotting the robots breaking down the door.

"Oh no, Tails- hurry! Get...urrrgh..." Their situation has grown too chaotic for any more strategies. _For the- the second time, we're being beaten by inferior machines... They said Eggman wasn't this crafty, but he's proving them wrong! He's dangerous. Or maybe I'm giving his machines too little credit..._

"If only your precious, precious, precious Sonic were here to see you die..." Sonic Android grabs Amy again, but she squirms and shakes. She's unable to break free. "Maybe he'd have loved you a... a tad bit more, eh?" Sonic Android pulls his hand back, fingers straightened, and aims for her chest, for her heart.

The first E-series robot enters the workshop. Instead of seeing the emerald, it gets an eyeful of hedgehog.

"Hi there. Lookin' for this?" He holds the ruby red Chaos Emerald. Sonic Android's eyes flare up in shock. The egg bots look away when he shouts 'Chaos Transform'. Streams of light emanate from the hedgehog as each limb of his body is suddenly surrounded by rolling, cobalt auras that all connect to each other. It becomes one. Sonic has become Ultra Sonic.

"Wait a minute! This isn't in my databa-" Sonic Android is shot into the ridge by a hyper homing smash. Sonic uncurls and lands on his feet, smirking. A thumbs up reassures his friends that all shall be well.

The monkey-bot E-181 realizes the threat. "We can't fight against raw Chaos energy. We must fall back!" It looks towards Sonic Android and adds, in total monotone, "Sir? May you please give us an order of defense?"  
Sonic Android emerges from the massive dust cloud in the impact hole, growling. He wipes pebbles and sand off of his head. "_Shut_ up, E-181. One good shot changes _nothing_." He jumps onto a coconut tree and slides down its stalk, using the momentum to roll into a ball.

"Tell me, faker," Ultra Sonic boasts, "Can a pile'a junk like you feel fear?!"

"Ah!" A punch of pure speed and kinetic energy smashes into Sonic Android's face. With a backflip, he balances himself midair for a smooth landing onto the top of a small cragtop. _Great, just what I needed. Master, if you can hear me, why didn't you warn me of this?_ _Wait, why am I whining... No, this is nothing. Master needn't tell me of this. I can handle this one! There's no way this meatbag can be stronger than me with just __**one**__ Chaos Emerald!_ _I just have to find a weakness and make him suffer for it..._

Tracking Ultra Sonic's speed, Sonic Android is nearly brought to tears. Tears of laughter. "What is-! What is this?! Did someone fill your shoes with cement?" He slaps his knee. Whooping like a frat boy, he adds, "Calculating speed!"

"Don't mind the speed, buddy! Mind the _fist_ in your _face_!" Sonic returns, still gaping himself from the android.

"One hundred and fifty nine miles per hour! My my!" Sonic Android hops. Upon touching the dirt, he speeds towards Ultra Sonic, sonic booms tearing the air apart behind him. "You're makin' this too easy!" When he attempts to send a punch with him, an arm rips cleanly through his chest. Sonic Android's outer skin cracks near the wound, revealing the mechanical truth underneath. Wires scream and hiss as he begins to separate in two. The last thoughts of Sonic Android flash through its false mind, all of shame and humiliation. _No... he used my own speed against me..._

All of the egg bots look on in horror. E-182-5241 is the most disturbed, incapable of even looking as Sonic Android, split into two uneven pieces, explodes into a cloud of cerulean debris, fake fur and gears.

* * *

"_YEAH!_" Tails screams, jumping around as he cheers Sonic's victory.

"Way to go, Sonic!" Amy chirps herself.

"That was fantastic," Koset adds on. Ultra Sonic grins and throws his friends a casual thumbs up. Then he looks towards the other robots, leer absent from his muzzle. The egg bots can only fear what this means for them. They look at Tails, Amy, and Koset. All three have less than friendly expressions plastered on their faces. Ultra Sonic joins them on the plateau, both in presence and intentions.

"Time to take out the rest of the trash!" Some of the egg bots whimper, some continue growling in fury. The egg pawns take steps back. If Sonic Android was taken down this easily, they stand _less_ than no chance.

"Uggh! Eggman's robots are disgusting! All of them. Just like him." Amy beats her hand with her Piko Piko Hammer as she stares down the trembling droids, her eyes flashing vengeance and malevolence.

"Why does Eggman always send out these two bit losers? He should just face us himself! Bot after bot. He makes 'em, we smash 'em."

"You can't kill what isn't alive, Sonic." Ultra Sonic shrugs in agreeance.

"Tails, what do you mean? Can't robots think and self-appreciate?" Koset asks.

"Some can, I guess, but Eggbutt's robots aren't really alive, Koset. They're usually just machines sent out to do one thing, and they'd probably explode if we tried to make 'em do somen' else," Sonic answers for Tails.

"Are _they_ alive?" he adds.

"They're from Eggman. All that man does is kill," Amy replies. "They're not alive to _me._"

"They're machines, Ko. Eggman makes 'em so we can smash 'em. Most of 'em don't have feelings anyway and don't care who they harm. It'd be pointless to teach something that can't think for itself things like right and wrong." Koset is forced to swallow Sonic's explanation like a pill two sizes too large for his throat.

"Oh all right. But only because it's obvious Eggman's machines are truly lifeless." One egg pawn backs into something solid. Before it can turn around, Amy's hammer crushes it down to the thickness of a lone sheet of paper. E-179 loses nerve and attempts to charge Koset, winding up impaled by his light saber. Both the flattened droid and the half empty E-bot explode. E-180 and E-181 jump into the air and lock into each others' puzzle-like attachments and come down as a sharp wheel, madly rolling towards Tails.

With low eyes and a grin of pity on his face, all Tails does is take a step out of the way. The two roll right off the plateau and into the waters below. E-180, being that the E-series has been adapted to be water-resistant, grabs onto a protruding rock, wet. As it looks up, it is sent into a state of horror as he sees Amy Rose coming down at it.

Ultra Sonic pays little attention to the column of fire and smoke blowing over the side of the cliff. In one foul swoop, he takes out E-176, E-177, E-178, E-184, E-185, and_ seven _Egg Pawns. The remaining droids know they're doomed. Why bother going out without a fight? Only E-182 stays back as the four other robots split up to fight their respective enemies. E-183 fires an internal Gatling gun at Koset, who deflects all bullets with his Jedi-like reflexes. Every bullet is send back to E-183. Full of bullet holes, a single tongue of electricity dances around its chassis as it collapses in on itself and explodes. E-186 grabs a bomb from inside of it and presses in on a concave button. The bomb is noticeably similar to the Egg Ball from earlier, even down to its minute surface imperfections. It eyes Ultra Sonic. Ultra Sonic eyes it as well. Before it's even out of the robot's hands, Ultra Sonic grabs the bomb and throws it- and E-186- out to sea. It explodes, firework-style, far out in the distance, strings and fingers of smoke and fire drifting down into the ocean.

Ultra Sonic lands third in a line between Tails, Amy, and Koset, in that order. The remaining two egg pawns charge at the anthros from behind. Out of nowhere, two flickies dart through the egg pawns at high speeds, leaving behind pale green and faded pink streaks in their wakes. Short circuiting, they then explode as well.

"Nice job, guys," congratulates Sonic, aura now down. The smoke from the last two Egg Pawns fades away. From behind them, the blue hero spots E-182-5241. It's walking out of the ruins, not even in an inconspicuous manner. Its arms are drooped and its head hangs lower than its shoulders. "Going somewhere?" It doesn't turn around. No surprised anime expression. No flinching, no pause. Instead, it continues hanging its head in shame and walks on.

Amy takes a massive step forward, hands firmly gripped on her Piko Piko Hammer and eyes glaring at the head of the robot. Sonic's arm acts as a stop. Instead of going after it, Sonic silently shakes his head at Amy as a gesture to let her know that enough's enough, and turns around, throwing the defeated robot out of his mind. He never thinks highly of any of Eggman's robots, not even the conscious ones, but any one that knows when to give up deserves to live for at least a little longer.

"Let's get back inside and check the Detector," Tails puts to a victorious team. They retire.

* * *

The sunlight has already begun to disappear behind the usual clouds of this new kind of day- those of mountainous storm clouds. Northern birds patrol their territories above the battleground and battle to a cold death over what food remains. A butterfly lands on a leg hydraulic, flapping its wings twice before fluttering away.

"So, anymore news on that Chaos Emerald?" Sonic asks Tails in a manner as if the battle hadn't even occurred. Tails shakes his head, setting the Detector down among a chaotic mess of old blueprints and advanced word games.

"All you have to do is get it, and we'll be done." Sonic walks for the door. Tails's pet flickies cheer and chirp as he passes them.

"Good job out there today, little guys," he tells them, leaning as he pets the loyal birds. Sonic salutes his friends as he exits the workshop.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there, Big Blue."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	19. Sensible and Senseless

**Episode 5: Subversion**

**(19) Sensible and Senseless**

* * *

Sonic is told of the accusations. Rouge had been at New Serenity a moon ago, and it was there that Sonic had supposedly attacked Shadow, wounding him to what would be mortally to any other creature. The bat claimed that she and all of GUN had been tricked, as she was called back to HQ, hundreds of miles away, while the battle had gone down, reportedly taking over the span of one half hour. On top of that, Sonic was reported to be attacking Empire City the very next day. Even Knuckles listened on in intense awe at Rouge's story, himself only half believing it. Rouge accuses Sonic of nearly killing Shadow, but doesn't believe it herself that he'd go out and destroy part of a city for no reason. She's informed of Sonic's alibi, that it's simply impossible that Sonic was responsible for anything. Then she's told of Sonic Android, whom Sonic had destroyed no more than five minutes ago. Rouge appeared slightly comforted by the fact Sonic was 100% certainly not responsible for any of the events, but shares in the collective confusion of just what's going on.

Koset, who for the past day has been himself longing for answers to the Adabat event, is the most enlightened, and the most disturbed. "Is there any more to the story?" he plaintively asks Rouge.

"Actually, yes! Yes there is. When I came across Knuckles, he was getting his devastated red butt kicked all 'cross his dirty li'l rat nest by this weird mole kid."

Knuckles, bloodshot in the eyes and vein_**s**_ throbbing on his head, spits, "_**I wasn't losing to him! I was doing just fine all by myself! H-he just caught me off guard a few times!"**_

Rouge shrugs, "Mhm. Keep telling yourself that, hon. Anyway, that mole had a Chaos Emerald. Cue group gasp." Dead on, Sonic, Tails, and Amy gasp in heavy shock, ex script. "Mhm. And it _wasn't_ the one stolen from New Serenity. Why earlier that very day, I got a call for a jewel heist in Central City. The only thing stolen? That beautiful little sapphire Chaos Emerald. Which color emerald did mole boy have?"

"The deep blue one," Knuckles replies, arms folded. Sonic looks at Tails and Koset, exchanging highly concerned looks. This grand adventure is quickly turning into something much deeper and darker, and they know it.

"And what's been bothering me is how he had jacked the museum and then beat me to Knucklebutt's little hovel _and _then owned said Knucklebutt so quickly, considering he said Jynx neither came in nor left too quickly." Knuckles's eyes twitches at each mention of 'Knucklebutt.'

Koset answers, "He must've had some other form of transport and perhaps the transporter would have preferred not to be seen by neither citizens, GUN, you, or Knuckles. But if what Knuckles said is right, he had been fighting for too much time for Jynx to have just arrived. Seeing that I could sense Wikke's location the whole time, that rules out his involvement. So as to what kind of transport, and the identity of the transporter, still remains to be seen. Of course, we can't rule out that perhaps this bandit also possesses the ability of Chaos Control, although that seems unlikely."

Rouge, impressed, replies, "_Very_ sharp, Ko! You're a true chip off the old block."

"I must admit, I'm intrigued by this twisting little backstory," Koset admits with a small grin. Then he presses his fingers to his chin in the middle of this next line, "But for us, more pressing issues abound, so we trust you two shall deal with your problems with this Jynx character on your own."

"That was the plan," is Knuckles's wry response. "I'm not letting Sonic highjack my life all the time."

"So, wait, Shadow's alive?" Amy asks Rouge. The latter nods.

"Saved him myself. He's hooked up on one of New Serenity's satellite bases right now."  
"But I saw on the news they said he's dead!" Rouge is nearly struck with a heart attack. "They said they recove-" Amy's quickly cut off.

"That's a lie." Now she'll never get this new stain of doubt out of her mind until she sees Shadow once again. In her mind, she curses the rose hedgehog for even opening her mouth. But she's the one who opened her mouth first, isn't she?

Koset takes another look at the Chaos Detector. "Sonic, get to Good Hope right now. We need that emerald. If what Rouge says is true, then we're behind Eggman and Wikke." 'And Wikke' came with a more pessimistic tone than the rest of the sentence. Even Koset's not sure if fighting this one is truly possible. Sonic gives him a thumbs up and sprints out of the workshop.

As Sonic leaves, the heroes turn to each other.

"So, about that mole guy," Tails begins. Knuckles angrily scoffs.

"Jynx is his stupid, reject, dumb, forsaken, nasty, doomed name." Tails can feel the echidna's brooding rage and make no attempts to expand on that one.

"R-right. What exactly did he do to you?" Knuckles chuckles.

"Where do I even begin."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

Sonic has already reached the United Federation mainland and is fast approaching the next country north. He has a thousand miles to go, but he isn't in any major rush. He races past many major cities, an innumerable amount of mountains and forests, and a tundra located further south than ever before. His stamina and resolve can only be described as Herculean as he braves hours upon hours of rains and, more often, blizzards.

Soon, he comes across a landscape that becomes reminiscent of Celtic Ireland or Gaelic Scotland. The grass here looks more like a sea of undulating emeralds, and waves scream as they crash onto rocky shores under a perpetually grey sky. This is Olde Mobia.

Sonic's advance slows to a stop as a never-ending gale blows into his face. On a point in the distance a few miles in front of him lies what seems to be a fort. He continues his super sonic march for it, letting the structure grow in his eyes.

He looks up at its earthen, huge square blocks, towering into the sky. A grand, stone flying buttress extends in front of the eighth-mile high double castle doors. From his left to his right, all the way to the ends of the fort, is an ice-filled moat. He has no trouble crossing the ice. The imposing structure doesn't scare him. In fact, knowing that this is where his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-gr eat-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grea t-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great- great grandfather had defeated the mad King Eggman almost gives the Fort of Good Hope an embracing feel, as if, after a thousand years, he's returning home.

The wooden door creaks open. A troupe of spider webs snap and break. Sonic walks inside, grabbing a nearby torch. He lowers it to the ground and revs up his feet, rubbing them together. The friction sparks a fire on the torch, but leaves his sneakers clean. He picks up the lit torch and navigates the ancient fort. He looks around each and every room, swatting away moss, vines, spiders and other creepy crawlies. He coughs as he enters a dust hazed room. Each footstep echoes across the entire decrepit base until they clash with the echoes of the next footstep.

Sonic believes he can hear, feel, see the spirits of the original freedom fighters still running frantic around the base, but pays them no attention. Their past is not what brought him here. Yes, they share a common desire to see their mortal enemy, the Robotniks, defeated, but even the great freedom fighters of history must rest some time.  
After a full hour and a half of searching, he finds another door. What sunlight still lives in this land whimpers from cracks under and on the side of the inverted acorn-shaped door, as well as from holes in the door itself. Sonic opens it. Outside is an open court. Four grey-stone walkways converge at the center of the yard, paralleled by gardens within the squares on each side. In the center is the pure white Chaos Emerald. Sonic runs to it, delighted to find it after what, to him, felt like years. As he reaches for a grab, it busts! The cobalt hedgehog jumps back. From the shattered pieces of the emerald rises a chrome silver blob.

"That's… a Chrome Mandroid!" he shouts as he's forced to watch this 'mandroid' take the form of a metallic silver, featureless Metal Sonic. "Wh-what's a Chrome Sonic doing here?!" He takes another look at the broken emerald. "If a Chrome Sonic was in there, then that must've been…" The Chrome Sonic deforms into a ball. "_**A fake!**_'

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	20. The Eggman Empire Strikes Back

**Episode 5: Subversion**

**(20) The Eggman Empire Strikes Back**

"What… is going…on…," becries a stunned Tails. His arms droop to his sides as he checks the Chaos Detector as many times as one possibly can in five seconds. He checks again and again and again and again.

"Is there a problem?" Koset asks, just after conversing with Knuckles. Tails gives Koset a worry-brimmed look, almost in despair. He continues scanning the results of the Chaos Detector alarmed at what he continues to find. The emerald hedgehog briskly walks to him, and picks up the Detector himself.

"What's the matter?" Knuckles asks. Rouge is standing next to him, equally curious.

"This detector is picking up… 19 Chaos Emeralds!" Koset replies, astounded.

"What?!" is Knuckles stunned response. Outside comes a low rumble of thunder.

"Wow. Nineteen… Nineteen emeralds. Y-yeah, there's something wrong there," Rouge states. "You don't think that the extras are…"

"Fake…" Tails cheerlessly replies. He begins using the touch-gram capabilities of the Detector, pinpointing the energy signals from each emerald. They all seem uniform enough. It takes the eyes of a true genius to find differences in the maze of mathematics and jungle of physics. While he calculates the data, Knuckles hits the wall with the side of his fist.

"What is Eggman trying to do?" he snarls. Rouge considers what this means as well. She's never been a fan of fake gems, but what if the emerald Jynx had was fake? What if the emerald that robot had was fake? There's so many possibilities, it's enough to make one paranoid. But she's sure that the emeralds she saw in Adabat and on Angel Island were definitely real. No fake, however well made, could ever look that beautiful.

"So… you're saying there's a chance that the emerald _we _have is _fake?_" Amy gasps.

"Wait," Tails suddenly shouts. "Some of these signals _are_ less consistent than others! Let's see…" he counts the number of emeralds detected, then separates the more erratic ones than from the more orderly ones. "It looks like it's true. I'm counting 13 emeralds with lower wavelengths. It's tiny, but the difference is enough to tell the difference!"

"Wait a second," Koset stutters. "We have one emerald, and we know Eggman more than likely has one as well. Also, that 'Jynx' character might have one also. That's three, the other three are still scattered around the planet, and Sonic said there's seven."

"Three plus three doesn't equal seven," Knuckles says in a lower tone.

"Who taught _you_ math?" Amy insults. Knuckles sneers at her scorn, while Rouge smiles, fractionally disappointed she didn't say it first.

"It must be with Wikke," Koset reasons. "He has the ability to conceal the energy of Chaos Emeralds, so long as they're near him and no one is using them. But even if he has one Emerald, nothing good can result from that."

"So wait a second, is the emerald Sonic going to get real?" Amy questions, to the shocked gasps of all in the room as they consider this frightening new possibility. There is a tangible amount of heartfelt concern in her voice. Tails attempts to check once more, only for the Detector to beep softly three times and shut off.

"Oh no!"

"Now what?" Knuckles asks.

"There were so many signals, it must have zapped the Detector of rings!" Tails doesn't sound convinced saying this but must accept his hypothesis as truth.

"Does it still work?" Tails scratches his chin as he looks around the workshop for spare rings, finding only one, two. Unfortunately, Ultra Sonic had used the bulk he could have used.

"Yeah, but it won't pick up any emeralds. I need at least fifty rings to get any decent signal."

Rouge nudges Knuckles. "_We_ have an emerald to fix."

"_**I **_have an emerald to fix."

"Oh, well, in that case, guys, the closest pieces of the Master Emerald are a hundred miles south of here."

Knuckles staggers, super deformed. "Wait a minute here! You mean to tell me that _that_ piece of _junk_ can actually find the Master Emerald pieces?!" Rogue also looks interested. She sends the device several curious looks. _What a steal. Now if only I could steal that thing, I could finish this up in no time._ But she decides that such isn't worth her time, and on top of that, playing with her already fragile relationship with the Sonic heroes at a time like this is the kind of option not made by the intelligent.

"Well, it could if I had rings." Tails cracks the Detector into two pieces, revealing the various pieces of hardware and the colorless Chaos Drive inside. "I think it's time I upgrade this thing," he mutters deeply under his breath.

"How do you plan on-" Koset begins to ask.

"Now that we have our own Chaos Emerald, I could use it to construct a new mark six or even mark seven Chaos Drive," Tails cuts off, "providing I have Prowerantium."

"Don't mind him, Koset," Knuckles then says as he walks out an open door. "Just one a' his little_ elements_." He slams the door behind him. Him and Rouge.

"And _why_ do I have the feeling you don't have Prowerantium…" the green hedgehog then dully asks in an almost emo tone. Tails lets out a weak nervous chuckle.

"Yyyeaah…you got me there." He rubs the back of his head. "I stored most of it on my Washington Island workshop, but I didn't bother to pick any up 'cause I thought Sonic had collected enough rings to last me longer than I ever needed."

"Then the radar glitches out on you, and he has to use the rings to sustain himself as Ultra Sonic. No one could have predicted that." Another rumble of thunder. The door swings open again and in walks a drenched Rouge.

"I hate rain." She puts it bluntly and worthy of no further description, grabbing one of her bat theme umbrellas she had bothered to bring and bothered to forget.

"You coming or what?" Knuckles shouts from the distance. Rouge has to put her loathing for this weather aside and keep her mission as a number one, will-sacrifice priority.

The Chrome Sonic bounces left and right in a vain attempt to confuse his flesh and blood counterpart. Sonic crouches to the left as the ball of chrome shoots over his shoulder. Foot planted in the grass, he makes a 180 spin.

Jeez! Just what I need, a flippin' chrome mandroid! he thinks. As he somersaults backwards, the mandroid, or liquid metal android, bounces erratically, making little attempt to hit _anything_. Then, it swerves in a screw at crashes into Sonic's hands. The hedgehog, after being rammed back a few feet, raises his hands, sending the chrome Sonic arcing in the sky.

When it lands, it splashes in a small stream of liquid metal before reforming into its original Metal Sonicoid shape.

Oh great, now what? Sonic thinks to himself. Man, I hate these things…

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

He stands in front of a fleet hidden in the shadows of a hanger. Egg Pawns of all shapes, sizes, armors, and with all sorts of weaponry stand in a perfect line throughout. Walking down the aisle of the aerial ship like a general inspecting his troops, Eggman is constantly updated on the situation of the Sonic heroes via holographic video. A bug-like robot, no larger than a fist, hovers at shoulder height to his left the entire way through. Attached to it is a thin metal arm, and at the end of this arm is the hologram video projector.

Everything's going according to plan. He's upset Wikke by failing in Empire City, but that won't be once more. He shan't fail this time. As he continues to examine his fleet as well as the status of the heroes, he comes across the forever black-clad Wikke, materializing in front of his face. Eggman misses a heartbeat, but continues on. He's used to this now.

"When you hhhave failed your foolhardy attack, contact V. Tell hhhim of a new _development_."

Eggman's brow lowers. "Do you mind informing me of just what this 'development' is?"

"Fail first." Eggman grumbles at Wikke's dark pessimism.

"Then I guess I'll never know," is his wry reply.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**End of Episode 5**

"**Subversion"**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

Theme of SERZ

"Ultraterrestrial"- Clintone.


	21. The Unbeatable

**(21) The Unbeatable**

* * *

Sonic looks around for an opening and all he sees is the Chrome Sonic speeding for him again. With a corkscrew kick, the hedgehog blows the mandroid into thousands of tiny sprinkles. As the chrome Sonic rains down, the real Sonic readies himself for what he knows will be round two.

Just as he expects, all the droplets of the liquid metal robot begins scurrying for each other, coalescing into one formless being. Sonic scans the ground and finds what he's looking for.

Some drops are still on the ground, he thinks to himself. So at least its falling apart…

Sonic is struck in the head by a clod of liquid chrome, shot from the shapeless monstrosity. The metal sticks to his fur like gum in one's hair. He's hit by another glob, then another. Each round pushes him further and further down to the ground.

After seven more hits, Sonic is entirely covered by the body of the Chrome Sonic, appearing to be a pile of silverish-grey goo. A glowing white outline surrounds the shape. As it grows, it takes the form less of Metal Sonic and more of the actual Sonic the Hedgehog. He remembers this. It's an Arrester Bind, perhaps _the _most annoying attack in the world.

Sonic screams out as the stinging liquid opens a gap for his face. In a minute long wince, he tries to move any limb he can, failing. Instead, the mandroid is what moves Sonic, forcing one leg in front of the other at an increasing rate of speed.

Without a Chaos Emerald, the azure 'hog knows that this battle is going to be a bogging one. As he's forced towards who knows where, he reminisces the last time he was forced to fight one of these things. He knows Eggman can't send out chrome mandroids willy-nilly like he does his Egg Pawns, but when he does, Sonic assures himself that Robotnik must derive a massive amount of pleasure knowing how irritatingly persistent they are. Sonic has never defeated one is less than an hour. They are semi-immortal. 'Semi' signifying that they do have one mortal weakness, but in order for that weakness to be exploited, it will take that hour to work, save one has a tremendous amount of energy behind their attacks.

Sonic is forced outside of the fortress, then into a field, then towards a cliff. He gets it.

"Think again, Eggbuttnik!" he screams. When the mandroid brings Sonic to a run, the hedgehog is somehow able to bind himself into a spin dash. Rotating at rapid speed the mandroid flies off of Sonic in a spiral of debris shooting high into the sky, nearly touching even the clouds.

Sonic somersaults out of the spin dash. One hand keeping him off the ground, he looks on as the scattered chrome Sonic is still able to reform. As if in slow motion rewind, the spiral of material returns to the bare ground spot Sonic had spin dashed in, clumping together with splashes.

Now's his chance! Sonic makes a ballistic leap towards the fort's half busted walls, maneuvering through a millennium old collapsed section.

A semi-liquid, semi-formed arm grabs his leg. Sonic's face smacks into the ground. He swallows dirt as he's dragged back to the battlefield. His fingers dig into the wet earth, but are not enough to anchor the hedgehog. He makes another jab into the ground. It's still not enough.

Finally, he stops. As he realizes he has stopped, pain rips throughout his back as the chrome Sonic issues a series of punches using its half-formed liquid metal arms. After over ten impacts, Sonic rolls to the right, grabs the rubbery arm, and tosses it back Chrome Sonic's direction. By rapidly revving his legs, he escapes the mandroid's grip.

Oh great… it's getting back up. Now what? Now what? Sonic tries to find a better way to deal with the mandroid. Nothing comes to mind except the usual. The hero sighs. His breath is just barely visible- but it is visible. He doesn't believe he'll lose. He's just frustrated.

Around Sonic flows six cerulean strands of energy. Each other one flows in a clockwise direction, with the ones in between rotating clockwise. The grass beneath him is disturbed by a growing wind. In between the lines of energy, a turquoise blue smoke-like aura twirls up and about. He slowly raises his right hand, open for most of the rise, then clenches it shut when it's at eye level. The entire aura of orderless energy reacts swiftly, spiraling and compressing in that fist, becoming a deeper and deeper indigo as it does. After a moment, there's no more vortex. An orb of black-blue conceals his fist. It's shineless. There's no more gusts of wind except for the ones that occur naturally.

The mandroid, in its thoughtless being, darts for Sonic. It doesn't think of consequences.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**[Mystic Ruins]**

"This is _too _weird..." Tails frantically checks a handheld, half-dismantled radar. On its green screen, contained energy repeatedly blips to full back to empty back to full and back to empty in irregular intervals. "Maybe _everything _needs an upgrade."

Koset is visibly concerned. Stray beads of sweat patrol his face for assuredness. His mind is a frenzy of possible explanations for what he's seeing, but his rebellious mouth refuses to take a stand.

"If only I could peer into Wikke's mind... just for a moment." He grabs and weakly pulls the fur on his head. "_Augh! This doesn't make any sense!_"

"Is something troubling you, Koset?" Amy bluely asks. "Ever since I met you, you always look like you're stuck in a trance or something."

Rain patters on the roof of the workshop. The anthros can hear that it's coming down in sheets. What they can't hear, what's being woefully drowned out by the pounding rains and violent tempered thunder, is the demonic roar of distant engines.

As he woefully shakes his head, throwing his hands up in a shrug, he says, "We just need to keep our guar- _Huh?!"_ Koset's eyes shoot for the window. His brow slants. His vision sharpens.

"What's wrong, K?" Tails asks as he walks for the Hurricane. He looks at the window himself, stumped.

"There's…there's something out there!" The hedgehog stumbles to the window, rubbing his hand on the pane to remove the chilled condensation. "I can sense them from here." Tails and Amy both give him interested looks.

"Who'd be out there in _this_ weather?" Koset vigorously walks to the door, then swings it open. The handle hitting the wall sounds like a gunshot from a shotgun. Tails and Amy now feel as if their new friend is telling the truth. That, or he's gone mad.

"Look!" Koset shouts. He points to the black sky. Just barely concealed by the sea of rolling storm clouds is the iconic red, grey, and gold color scheme forever linked to one infamous man- Dr. Robotnik.

"Whoa! Good call, Ko!" Tails comments, fur nearly standing on end in awe as he, Amy, and Koset view the sight of a series of Egg Carriers. From over a loudspeaker, the booming voice of Robotnik even drowns out the roars of thunder.

"Mwaahahahahahahahaaaaa- ack!" Quite audibly, the three- all with pity-filled sweat drops on the back of the heads- can hear Eggman's lack of health. Cough! Cough! Cough! Wheeze! Heavy wheeze! Cough! He clears his throat after that embarrassing performance and goes on to say, "My dear furry friends! I'm going to make this as brief as possible- surrender your Chaos Emerald, or face the consequences."

"'_Surrender the Chaos Emerald or blah blah blah'! _Shut - up, Eggman!" Amy retorts. "Can't you think of any better lines?" is another scoldingly cold throw.

"How _**dare**_you insult my dialogue mannerisms!" The primary Egg Carrrier, a huge structure with six wings, three on each side of the craft, begins transforming. All six wings are mechanically sent to the front to the Carrier, forming a 'V' on its half-kilometer-wide nose. "_And for the record, you were going to face the consequences regardless!_"

As lightning shoots across the sky, blinding everyone for mere moments, Tails is the first to see the pure white orb on energy gathering in the center of the V.

"Back to the workshop, back to the workshop!" he hysterically commands. The genius boy bolts inside. Once in, a button with his Double Tails insignia on it is pressed. Amy and Koset just make it inside when they hear a pulsating hum, one loud enough to rattle the windows and floor of the workshop. Outside, a semi circle appears. It's red- the general barrier is an almost pink color, while waves of energy flowing upwards are a much brighter scarlet.

"What the …" Koset nearly curses out loud. "This barrier is glowing with Chaos energy. You know how to utilize this emerald's power?" He asks as if Tails shouldn't know what he's doing.

The fox can't even steal a second to respond. With an earth quaking _**SLAM!,**_ a hydrogen bomb's worth of energy plows into the workshop in the form of a laser. The entire shop is illuminated white, the brightest white possible. That's what it looks like to the blinded anthros at least. In their minds, there is a hint of doubt that the mass Chaos Shield will even hold up. Eggman just may have got them, and they know it, and because of a folly they took too long to realize, their hero is thousands of miles away, utterly incapable of helping them.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Sonic**

**Evil Reborn Zero**

**Episode 6**

**The Eggman Empire Strikes Back**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	22. Egg Armada

**Episode 6: The Eggman Empire Strikes Back**

**(22) Egg Armada**

* * *

Eggman unleashes an immensely dirty laugh as he watches in glee what he believes to be the utter destruction of his most frustratingly persistent of enemies. Behind him is Wikke. He appears to be much less than sure about the results of the laser. Instead of voicing his concerns, he only offers a smack of sarcasm.

"So you built this _entire_ army of mechanical _crap_ when you could have simply used an overcharged laser." The demonic being snickers lowly. He's noticing a trend with Eggman. "This makes me wonder how many times you could hhhave killed your adversary hhhad it not been for your complete convolution of such trivial matters."

"You stay out of my personal life!" Eggman charges back. "I do things my own way!"

"What? I was only _agreeing _with you. It is something we hhhave in common. Although, I'd prefer not to _fail_, as you have done."

Robotnik is as red as Knuckles. "_That_ _pestering blue rat gets lucky is all!_ My genius is unmatched, and no woodland freak of nature is truly capable of stopping me!"

Wikke, military in his demeanor, walks to the oversized, football-field-long windshield. "I meant _now._ You hhhave failed _now_." Eggman looks onto a screen portraying the land below. To his horror, he sees the workshop is still intact. In fact, it almost looks as if there's something _red_ surrounding it.

"_HOW?!_" he screams, simultaneously slamming his fists into the control panel.

Wikke, hiding a smile under his black cloak, begins to suggest something. The out-of-his-mind Eggman, too blinded by his anger, issues a command to 'release all capable Egg Gunners'. He had used this model in an adventure of which time had erased, one where he was searching for someone known as 'Princess Elise' for the Flames of Disaster in order to control time itself. The chances he could have created it in this timeline were slim, but occurred.

It worked! Tails can't believe it worked. With his forearm, the fox brushes away an entire flood of sweat off of his forehead and breathes a gargantuan sigh of relief. He had thought that one Chaos Emerald would prove too weak. Another check of the energy signals proves to his eyes, however, that it can not take another hit. The three can only hope that Eggman doesn't know that.

Know it he does not. Eggman refuses to waste any more energy than he needs to trying to destroy what he could not on his first try.

"And you are doing…" Wikke sighs in pity following this ramble, and this sigh is interrupted by another boast.

"That fox boy's little dog house has _got_ to go- V's orders. If those fools choose to hide in there, then that's _more_ than fine with me. Although the Chaos Emerald they have now may shatter, I can easily rebuild it for as long as we can get a certain _something_ in our control." He bobs his head towards a scattered few Master Emerald shards lying in a diamond box.

Wikke nearly explodes in laughter that could be described as drunken with sarcasm. "You are _all_ pathetic! _Every _last one of you. Just fail already so we may return to the script."  
"Don't _doubt_ me, Wikke."

The Egg Gunners, of which there may be thousands, flood into the Mystic Ruins. From above, the Egg Carriers all move into position. High-impact lasers bombard the jungle landscape as artillery shells crash down, sending dirt into the air. Missiles rain down in heavier concentrations than the cold downpour itself. However, rather than indiscriminately torching the entire Southern Jungle, it is all directed at Tails's tiny workshop.  
"What's Eggman tryin' to do, blow up the jungle?" Amy exclaims. She dives beneath a wooden table with Tails. Koset remains standing, staring at the ceiling.

"No. No, all of his attacks are being pointed at _us_. Tails, we have to get the Chaos Emerald and get out of here." Another impact forces the workshop to rumble.

"But if we take the Emerald, the shield'll go down, and-"

"His attacks are going to break through sooner or later. There are thousands of them and three of us. If Eggman is that ignorant of the power of Chaos, we _might_ have a chance, but that won't matter if we're all _dead!_" Tails can't doubt Koset's realism. He tells himself, mentally, that he has other workshops in other places. Losing this one means nothing. But what he doesn't know is why Eggman would have the audacity to go on such a bold and direct offensive, especially if they only have _one_ Chaos Emerald. Never before has he been so desperate.

He _is_ being desperate, Tails ponders. Right?

Run downstairs; break into the working area. From inside a crystal glass chamber, take the red Chaos Emerald from its metal fingers. The energy transfer stops.

The barrier is lowered, then disappears. Eggman never sees this. In his attempt to annihilate the workshop down to its individual atoms, the visibility has been figuratively destroyed by a smoke cloud that can almost touch its perpetually angry brother in the sky. Then Eggman, in his infinite wisdom, had forgotten to install a gift...

Instead, he chooses to let the Egg Gunners sift through the remains.

The first wave lands on a rolling hill. In a complete 360 degree circle around a compact area, soil a thousand years old is now the surface layer. Craters and scorched earth surround the entirety of the plateau that Tails's workshop sits on.

The front of the invading Egg Gunners moves into the ebony, sickening cloud. One raises its Vulcan cannon machine gun. Others follow suit. They survey the damage, their laser pointers following every one of their head movements.

From within the darkness comes the sound of a quasi-electronic hum. Then the sound of metal being sliced in half. Koset jumps out of the cloud. Under him is Amy, who delivers a blow to an Egg Gunner that is so strong, the disembodied kinetic energy rips the first Gunner apart, slams into a squad of Gunners behind it and tears them to scrap metal. It continues, knocking into a red Egg Gunner, bringing it down to the ground.

Tails is out with his ever trusted Ring Cannon. It charges up as golden spheres of absorbed ring energy twist around a central cavity, combining and condensing with each other to form a magazine of energy. Rather than release it all in one blast, Tails sets his cannon to 'rapid fire'. Taking aim at a squad of thirty silver Egg Gunners, he shoots with each shot following each other in imperfect succession. The rounds, instead of shooting through the robots as if they were regular bullets, explode on impact. One by one, as the energy bullets pluck them limb from mechanical limb, the Egg Gunners seem to melt into the ground. When Tails fires the last shot, a small haze of smoke gently rises from the barrel of the Ring Cannon, which he blows out. If they aren't already reduced to rubble, standing Egg Gunners, skeletons of wires, collapse into the dust.


	23. Tactical Insertion

**Episode 6: The Eggman Empire Strikes Back**

**(23) Tactical Insertion**

* * *

**Southern Jungle, Tikal Falls**

How'd he get caught up in this? He's in front of a raging waterfall, just a few meters from certain death. He's trying to reach a branch barely thicker or longer than his arm and said branch is on the verge of being swept away. He's being held by a promiscuous, scantily clad bat that is playfully considering dropping him just for the giggles. Worst of all? _He was beaten up by a mole. _

Knuckles refuses to let that defeat go. Of all the humiliating moments in his life, there has never been one so outright emasculating as that battle.

"_Keep me steady, fool! Stop shaking, fool! Your hands are too sweaty, fool!" _an arguably psychotic Knuckles barks. Rouge takes it all in strides, seeing this, rather, as a chance to shame Knuckles further.

"You call me the fool, so why did you get your butt handed to you by a-" Knuckles twists and squirms, brandishing his deadly, spiked fists in Rouge's face as a reminder who's in charge.

Which, in this situation, would be Rouge.

"_Bwaaaaaa! Don'tletmegodon'tletmego!"_ Knuckles, flapping his arms fast enough to fly, leaps for the branch. It wiggles and jiggles violently as he grabs on. As it all balances out, Knuckles opens his eyes, spotting the five Emerald shards comfortably sitting in the bowl of pine leaves, twigs, and various stolen gems. All stolen by a bird who may have taken lessons from Rouge.

"_That_ was just plain embarrassing," Rouge puts in her usual smack tone. Knuckles, eyeing out that her nose is in the air and her arms are folded, takes it as an insult. Then again, he takes everything Rouge says as an insult.

"_Shut __**UP!**__"_

"And since when could you actually _fly?_ I thought you could only use those wet rags on your head to-" Out of nowhere comes an ear-piercing screech! Both bat and echidna stare into the sky over the edge of the falls. Just as randomly as the eardrum busting shriek came, so does a pterodactyl!

Knuckles, on instinct, snatches the Master Emerald shards. In his rush, he nearly slips off of the branch. While he is able to maintain a decent grip on it, the psyched-out Knuckles's heart stops when he hears the sound of a branch snapping. He tilts lower, and lower, and lower… until he and the pathetic twig of a branch falls, parallel and inside the raging water fall.

Rouge grabs his wrist. The wettened echidna just may be too _scared_ to open his eyes.

"I'm just havin' a bad day is all!" he tries to explain with a hint of arrogance in his voice.

"Just keep tellin' yourself that, sweetie, and it'll _all _go away." Unfortunately for them both, that overgrown prehistoric bird isn't going away anytime soon until his shiny emeralds are returned.

And since when did pterodactyls even exist anymore?

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

The mandroid knows it's in a hairy situation now. Twirling around it is a maelstrom of cerulean, indigo, and blue-violet bands of wind. It's a Sonic Wind attack, and is nearly impossible to dodge. The chrome mandroid can only scan its surroundings in an emotionless state of mind as globules of itself fly into the air, joining the streaks of blue in their intense rotation. Trapped, it tries to run, only for its leg to get cut by the blades of energy.

Without any more support, the chrome Sonic is swept off of its one foot and flies into the vortex. As it makes a revolution, it is torn to shreds.

Panting heavily, Sonic, watching anxiously from the sidelines, is relieved as he watches the chrome Sonic's destruction. The Sonic Wind attack is not one he can do easily without a large number of rings, and by throwing one, he's made himself vulnerable to attack.

But by the looks of things, that's something he shouldn't worry about. The fierce twister finally dies out as it expands and fades. The airborne blobs of liquid metal disperse across the plains. Sonic circles around and walks back towards the dilapidated base. He steps in beads of the remains of chrome Sonic, oblivious as isolated drops crawl towards a central point.

Sonic, each breath going in and coming out in more distant, more relaxed intervals, gasps as several pairs of hands grasps his chest, restraining him from movement. The hands begin to grow around his body like vines, immobilizing Sonic completely.

Sonic realizes that it's another Arrester Bind attack. He has no rings. Why he brought some to Empire City and none here is something he'll been upset about for as long as he keeps this adventure in his ever short memory. Especially considering he had to fight a freaking Chrome Mandroid, the most despised, most useless, most irritating robot Eggman ever made ever after all. But why waste energy cursing himself. The most he can do now is to keep attacking the mandroid until it has no energy left to reform.

If he can escape its Arrester Bind attack in time that is. What gives Sonic hope is that when struggles to raise his arms, he is able to break the Arrester Bind.

"Ah!" he breathlessly gasps. If it's this easy to break its grip, that means that the Chrome Mandroid is finally being broken down to a destructible point. Before the spilled pieces of the android can find their way back to Sonic, he ducks and spin dashes off towards the fort.

He exits the dash and finishes the trek on foot, looking back to see how much of the metal Sonic is back together.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

"What a surprise. They're alive," Eggman puts in a flat, low, and grey tone. Wikke, in cynicism, claps, a second between each one, as he chuckles.

"Now throw a tantrum and use those _critters_ of yours," he taunts in an even more whispery tone than usual. Eggman's on the verge of the former. The Eggmobile descends into the cockpit of the Egg Wasp. Aside him is the automated Egg Falcon. The quadruple bay doors beneath him slide open. Under the Premier Egg Carrier float isolated strands of deep indigo-black clouds, racing across the sky as they are pushed by the hurricane force winds. As he watches as his army of robots begins to shrink, losing to the two fighters he always seems to underestimate _and_ some snot-coloured Jedi-wannabe Sonic recolour, he can't help but think that his day really cannot get any more humiliating than it is now.

That is until a whole platoon of Egg Gunners are picked up and thrown, kamikaze style, into an equal number of themselves… _by psychokinesis._

~OoOo~

"Silver?" Amy gasps as she sees the glowing white hedgehog. Koset is just as surprised, considering he's never even _heard _of _this_ hedgehog before.

"Amy! Tails! Need some help picking up these toys?" Silver shouts back, waving. Tails and Amy give him two approving smirks.

"It's that albino hedgehog again!" Eggman rants. Unfortunately for him, it was broadcast over a loudspeaker in the Egg Wasp.

Silver absolutely _des__**pises**_ being called an 'albino hedgehog'.

Eyes bloodshot, he screams, "Tails, gimme backup!"

"Got it!" is the reply. Silver clenches his hands and throws them behind his back. Around them roll cybernetic blue auras that grow deeper and darker with each passing second. Silver lets out a crescendo war cry. Rocks and pebbles under his half-fists begin defying gravity by rising in the air. The air around the hedgehog's hands begins becoming distorted and wavy. Finally, the aura collapses into what almost appear to be sky blue boxing gloves.

When he's satisfied with the buildup of energy, Silver fully clenches his hands into fists and begins running for the Egg Wasp. Already, the Egg Wasp has been hit by Amy- evident by a smash-out in one of its four insect-like grey wings. Tails is taking shots at it out of his Ring Cannon, using the excess amount of rings he couldn't use for the now defunct Chaos Detector. Koset _was_ going to attack the laser stinger of the Egg Wasp, but he saw Silver's attempt at an attack in time. Tails and Amy look up as Silver jumps over their heads and jacks a mighty punch at the cockpit of the Egg Wasp, sending the metal bug into a mountainside. With an explosive crash, the impact nearly implodes the mountain itself.


	24. Rays Of Light

**Episode 6: The Eggman Empire Strikes Back**

**(24) Rays Of Light**

* * *

Tails has to figuratively scrape his jaw off of the wet ground, too stunned to form words.

"S-Silver! Have y-you been working out?" Amy stutters, eye close to twitching. Silver floats down the ground.

"Nah, I just learned a new attack. I can-" The Egg Falcon flies over the four and begins shooting pulses of lasers down their way. All of which explode in fireballs on contact with the ground. "I'll explain later!" Another wave of Egg Gunners begin coming their way. In the distance, a disoriented Eggman puts the Egg Wasp back into the sky.

"Mess with me, will he?!" He pushes forward on the throttle and races back to the fields.

"Where's Sonic?" Silver asks, using his PK to catch a series of bullets and shoot them back into the Gunners that shot them. "I thought he'd be here!"

"Sonic's in Good Hope, several thousand…." The more Tails thinks about it, the more it makes sense. It comes to a ripping head in this moment of realization. "Wait a second!"  
"I know what you're thinking, Tails," Koset says. He has just cut ten Egg Gunners down to size. "You're right. This was all a set up to get Sonic away from us."

The four anthros, all wet and fur darkened from the consistent rain, stand back to back with each other as grey, ruby, and golden Egg Gunners surround them. With lightning flashing behind the sky high Egg Carriers and the two aerial mechs coming at them, it seems as if they're surrounded.

Piles of rocks begins rising once again, this time at a much quicker pace than last time. The other three look at Silver. His hands aren't glowing anymore, but his _feet_ are. Surrounding his Tron-styled boots are campy Sonic-sneakers, purely sky blue, translucent, and five times the size of the original ones.

Even Koset knows where this is going. Silver spots the Egg Falcon in the sky. At close to supersonic speed, he blasts through the endless army of robots and, with a quick step, launches himself into the sky. The Egg Falcon attempts to maneuver itself to impale the suddenly quick hedgehog with its atomically sharp tongue. Silver, however, lands on one of its wings and rushes to its head. He thrusts his hand onto the apex of its head and, draining the PK from his Sonic Sneakers, sends a bolt of energy into the unmanned vehicle. His foot planted in the side of its head, Silver throws himself off of the Falcon.

It inclines towards the ground, only to spontaneously explode in an explosion backed by three lightning strikes, the energy ripping it in half as it falls earthward.

"_No!_" Eggman screams. With the fall of the Egg Falcon, he slams the foot of the cockpit with his feet. "_No, No, NO!_"

"Hhhow you failed to compensate for this unexpected _liability _is not something I didn't expect," Wikke telepathically ridicules. Eggman grumps. Now Wikke's showing his true colours. The more he remains by his side, the more Eggman feels as if Wikke shares too many of Sonic's more reprehensible traits.

"Cheer up, Wikke, and stop complaining about yourself!" Eggman chin-rubbingly retorts. Eggman pushes a lever forward. "_I'm __**just **__getting started!_ _**GNAAAHAHAAHAAAHAAAAAA!**_"

Out of the blue, a cerulean streak blasts through the stinger of the Egg Wasp, taking with it one of its wings. Even Wikke is laughing.

"I…I-agh… I…." Eggman's mouth cannot form any more words. So much for 'just getting started' is what he hears from Wikke's telepathy. "_I HATE. THAT. HEDGE. __**HAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWG!**__" _In his blind fury, Eggman rips out the same lever he had clutched and tosses it through the cockpit windshield. Outside comes the crash of a lightning bolt and the thunder. As soon as the dying throes of the thunder fade in the distance, a beam of fresh sunlight pierces the darkness above, and all the rains and winds begin to cede.

Sonic skids to a stop in front of Tails and Koset, the lever throwing up a bit of dirt a few meters away. "Somebody bothering you?"

"What happened to _you_, Sonic?" Tails asks on sight of his friend's battle scars and wounds. Sonic closes his eyes and shakes his head, chuckling a bit.

"That emerald was a fake! Then I had to deal with a freaking Chrome _Mandroid!_" His friends can hear his frustration.

"We had our suspicions about the emerald being fake after you left," Koset responds, "but… what's a Chrome Mandroid?"

"Only _the_ dumbest idea since people came up with dumb ideas," is Sonic's contempt filled response. "_Silver!_" The two fist bump. "Long time no see, mang!"

Silver, panting heavily, then replies, "I expected you to be here before now. Guess I got it wrong."

"Enough chit-chat, you reject throwaways!" Eggman, unbalanced, cries. He charges for the five at the highest possible speed he can make his machine go. At cartoon speeds, he punches in dozens of buttons in a very short amount of time. The Egg Wasp shoots for the field. A faint silver shield pops up around it. Its stinger jabs into the mud. An explosion erupts from beneath the ground. The aforementioned barrier protects the machine from any damage. Eggman had hoped the same wouldn't be true for his opponents.

Perhaps he'll never learn. As another ray of sunlight gleams from behind the weakening storm clouds, Sonic, shimmering wet from rain himself, blows into the entirely clear thorax of the metal bug, shattering out something that is similar to glass. The rolled up hedgehog comes back around and shoots up the tail of the Wasp.

* * *

Eggman looks down at his precious fleet, nearly blowing veins as he is forced to watch his most hated enemy take it all down.

"I had it all planned out… It was perfect! Perfect I tell you!" he mopes.

Wikke snickers. "It's all you hhhumans can do. Fail." He flies over Eggman, expanding his aura to hold the short circuiting Egg Mobile. "Now that _that_ farce is over, perhhhaps we can focus on the tasks at hhhand."

Robotnik is too angry and ruffled to listen. "It was fool-proof!" He then begins to calm down. Forehead hunching, he folds his arms in ire. "After _all_ that planning. Aggh...No matter. I'll just have to salvage what I have now and-"  
"Robotnik. Put your _foolish_ plans aside. Actually, I'm disturbed that this spectacular failure was your plan." Eggman finally looks ready to snap.

"Don't count me out just yet, my friend. I still have one last trick up my sleeve, and it's sure to send that horrid hedgehog running! All I need to do i-"

"Enough, Robotnik. I'm not interested," Wikke kills as he raises his hand for Eggman to stop his Sonic X-esque monologue."You're just being a mood crusher. Give me one more chance, and I'll prove it to you that I _can_ stop Sonic!" The ginger-bearded madman looks off into the red sunset splashed on the background behind the diminishing towers of clouds. "And I can do it before we have to resort to your sneaky little mind game."  
"Somehhhow, I doubt that." The two fly off towards Eggman's base.

"Aw, pretty please?" Those are words Eggman probably have never said in his life before, and never intends on saying ever again to anyone, ever. It works. Wikke moans like a parent giving into a spoiled child.

"Why am I getting the feeling of 'filler'," he then groans.

"Well I must say, _this_ certainly has been an interesting day!" Eggman proclaims off in the distance. Watching beneath them in the wet and glistening dusk red tropical flora is a smirking, purple mole.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

Tails sneezes, then rubs his noses with a tissue. After sniffling, he asks to his friend, "S-s-o what happened w-with the Mandroid?"Around him and Amy are blankets. Rain plus cold equals a less than healthy sum of sickness. Both of them listen with open ears to Sonic's tale.

"I don't really know myself. It had me in an Arrester Bind, but I was able to break free, you see? When I looked back to check on that crazy thing, it didn't come back together." Sonic, laying on a couch with his hands behind his head, speaks with relief. Tails and Amy have fought Chrome Mandroids before, and they share Sonic's feelings about how frustrating they can be.

"It died that quickly?"  
"Yeah, bud. Then I added 2 and 2 and realized I've been had, so I raced back to the Southern Jungle and the Mystic Ruins on overdrive. Think I pushed mach four or something like that, and I still can't feel my toes." He slurps some of his beloved root beer, warmed only on this one occasion. "It's so dang cold out there..."

Tails takes a sip of hot chocolate out of a mug. "I can understand why Eggman would build one fake emerald to throw us off, but why 13?"

"Maybe he learned how your Chaos Detector works and figured he could fool you, or at least drain it of enough energy to make it useless," Amy suggests, suffering from an illness-wrought weak voice.

"I don't know. He couldn't have had enough time to analyze it in Empire City," Tails mulls. "Or maybe he did. I don't know. I mean, GUN gave most of the parts to me, so he couldn't know much about it to begin with. But what I'm most curious about is why only nineteen emeralds are showing up on radar. If the data's correct, then there should be twenty. It's like one of the real emeralds just fell off the face of the Earth."

"Whatever the case," Sonic then says loudly as he jumps off the couch, "Eggman's got another thing coming!" He eyes Silver and Koset and gives them a wink. Silver throws him a thumbs up; Koset, a positive grin. "Now then, about that next emerald-"  
"Sonic, I think it's a good time for us to _rest _for a minute..." Tails swiftly states. Outside, the sun hides under the horizon. With it goes what felt like a day like no other.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**End of Episode 6**

"**The Eggman Empire Strikes Back"**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	25. Tribunes of Rome

**(25) The Tribunes of Rome**

* * *

"I just don't understand!" the president shouts as he slams his desk. One might mistake the Presidential oval office to be illuminated by a black light, and what sounds like a waterfall splashes against the roof and the windows. Tightly closed curtains hide the screams of a world gone mad. The devil himself could be in this room and it wouldn't feel any darker than it already is. "I still don't believe that Sonic is the one responsible for all this. Even _Shadow _would never-" He's cut off by one of the opposing figures in the room.

As he explains in his thick, Euro-Russian drawl, he says, "We've already analyzed all that there is. Believe what you want, Mr. President. Believe what you want. Sonic the Hedgehog-"  
"Perseus!" the president snaps, jumping from his seat. Then he hushes as he is forced to swallow the pill that makes him so ill. He sits back down. "I've read your plan on how to stop this. If I…If I grant you all emergency military powers-"  
"You give _those_ to the Commander," he responds without a smile. He's well aware of the danger absolute military power brings in times of great civil strife.  
"That's what you said last time! And what happens? GUN loses their best agent. Empire City is put under martial law after being attacked by a hedgehog, and then it's invaded by Eggman. Apart from that, under the Commander, fifty more cities are under martial law as well. That's _exactly_ the image I need- a fascist dictator!" the president cries, running his fingers through his hair. "General Venda...There _has_ to be another solution!"

Venda is a man who appears far younger than he actually is. With a wrinkle-less face and combed black hair, the fifty-something general is just as well-built as The Commander of GUN and wears an equally decorated military attire, yet he looks half his age.

"I understand your suffering, Mr. President, sir, and the Commander _has _allowed more areas to fall into Yurist or Yurist-leaning hands, including, with twisted irony, sir, Adabat." Before he had even finished the sentence, the President had shouted.

"**_What?!_**" He hits his fists on the disk and runs his palms over his face. "This can't be happening." The second slam vibrates the scattered papers and inkless-pens strewn across the top. He stands up and walks to the windows.'This country- is it about to go to Hell? And here I am, staring out of a window, powerless to do anything.'

"But he's a good man." Venda seems to throw at the last second. "He won't lose his head. I'm sure that in issuing martial law, he has a plan to prevent the United Federation from collapsing in all out revolution."

"If there is one, I don't know about it, and I'm not seeing it in action."

"Of course, the Commander is also interested in establishing _nationwide_ martial law, for the benefit of security for all citizens. Of course, with our manpower as strained as it is, there are only two plausible options." The President is growing paler and paler with every word uttered from Venda's mouth.

"Give them to me."

"Either we introduce a draft, or we pull out of all foreign locations." The president about-faces immediately.

"_Pull out?! No. __**No **__pullout._ I refuse to let the communists get their hands on any more land! It _has_ to be the draft." Venda half rolls his eyes, realizing that this situation is becoming a desperate and inescapable one.

"Should you choose the draft, Mr. President, I _can't _assure you_ you'll_ survive the fallout," General Venda says, walking behind the president with his hands behind his back, speaking with a tone that makes him sound like he has all the answers to all the questions but is too stingy to share them with anyone else. "Polls say that 97% of your citizens demand that we pull out of other countries. That the spread of troops around the globe has actually made us _more _vulnerable than before, as it is only increasing resentment against the Federation, making it, ironically, _more _likely of an attack against us."

The president takes in these words like steel wool. He sits back down in his swiveling chair. "But we can't let the Yurists-"

"_Gaul _successfully put down a slew of Yurist backed uprisings within their own borders with _no_ help from the Federation or the Guardian Units of Nations. As you might imagine, the people are _all_ _over _that story. Already, we're getting reports of talks of sedition from GUN units. Court martialed, of course. Institute a draft, and the next thing you know, Reds will be in this capital, on your lawn, _in. Your. Seat_." For that very last trio of words, Venda was directly in the president's face, impossible to lose eye contact.

"Has Omega reported anything back?" he asks, one fist caught in his other hand, his eyes forced downward by his catch-22 situation. The general turns away, looking at one of the president's noticeably worried aides standing next to one of the flags.

"Yes. Yes, I've heard from the Commander and Agent Shadow, before he was attacked, that Omega has found that the Yurei Union is still struggling to maintain its own resources amid the radical climate changes. Deprive the fire of fuel, and it will eventually burn itself out. That's why-"

"-And Doctor Robotnik. What about him?"

"Nothing since his appearance in Empire City. The aerial forces I've ordered into the city seems to have scared him off, so the GUN generals stationed there have allowed for the people to move from the relocation camps back into their homes." The president turns around in his chair for but a moment, then turns back around.

"Aide, tell the Commander that Venda is to receive all emergency military powers!" The president's aide nods and rushes out of the room, nearly bumping into another man coming in.

"You are too kind, Mr. President," Venda initially thanks, "but please reconsid-"

"Mr. President, I have some bad news," an advisor says as he jogs in, his words crashing into and overpowering the general's. "The weather in the oceans is taking a turn for the worse. Our worst case scenarios may be coming true. Several ice storm cyclones have formed simultaneously. All of them are headed towards land, sir. Also, a multitude of low pressure systems have formed along the equator, stretching around the circumference of the entire planet. We believe that, within only a day, these storms will combine into one massive Equatorial Super Storm. Our top scientists fear that mankind is directly on a path towards a new ice age."

"What is going on?" he quietly whispers as he looks down.

"Sir, we may have a lead on the case involving the robbery of the Chaos Emerald," the advisor presents. The distressed man cares little for that petty robbery right now.

"Tell me at the next briefing." he emptily says. "General Venda, has the Commander received any contact from Rouge?" Venda then replies, "We lost contact with Agent Rouge last night." May his remaining nerves hold onto his sanity!

"R-right. So we lost Rouge as well." The man in blue chuckles. Not because it's funny, but because it's so damn frustrating.

"We can't confirm whether she's been attacked. Her last known location was in the Southern Jungles, near Tikal Falls. It may be possible that she was assaulted by-"  
"Sonic…" The president thinks long and hard using all the time two seconds feels like to a man under stress. "Sonic. I want Sonic. To meet him face to face. General Venda, I want him in my office, alive."

"Yes sir."

And that should have been the end of that, until...

_Whispering._ Sighing.

"Mr. President, I had hoped to avoid bringing this up, but..." Perseus Venda sighs. "I have some...very... very bad news. It involves a break in the New Serenity case."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Sonic**

**Evil Reborn Zero**

**Episode 8**

**A Symbol of Thrill**


	26. No War Till Dawn

**Episode 7: A Symbol of Thrill**

**(26) No War Till Dawn**

* * *

**Mystic Ruins**

**Morning**

Tails has spent all of his waking moments away from the Hurricane and at his desk, reading the results of the recharged Chaos Detector. He's spent much of the time trying to pick out the false emeralds from the real ones, discovering that these are much better hoaxes than he even gave Eggman credit for. To prevent a blowout like last time, he's only panning out limited areas.

Sonic, watching him do all of this, had noted that Tails began getting more and more and evermore interested in a nearby area known as the 'Illi Badlands.'

When Sonic actually asks him what's wrong, Tails replies, "The closest Emerald…_is on the move!_"

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

"Do you think Eggman and Wikke got to it?" Tails asks to the nervous group. Koset looks unconvinced.

"How do you know it's someone and not some_thing?_" is his answer to the evidence. "Where exactly is it located?"

Tails checks again. "Near a series of active volcanos in the Illi Badlands, not too far from here." Koset then uses that to combat Tails's prediction.

"Then it might be stuck in a lava flow," is his explanation. Tails thinks about this for a moment, agreeing with the green hedgehog that he might have spoken too soon.

"I'll go," Silver announces. His friends in the room look at him for a moment.

"Sure thing, Sil," speaks up Sonic. "But only if I get to go with you." Amy grasps Sonic, each hand locking into the other.

"Good luck, Sonic!" Sonic tries to keep a straight face, but still winds up squirming his way free when the rose hedgehog refuses to let go. "And if Eggman _is_ there, then whack him on the head for me!"

"Heh. Thanks, Amy." Now he turns to Tails. "Where's the emerald at _exactly?_"

"150 miles away, closing in on Pumpkin Mountain. It's moving to the northeast. You guys better hurry. It's moving at a pretty quick rate and-"

"Talkin' about _me_ or the Chaos Emerald?" Sonic shouts from outside. Silver had already recreated his telekinetic-powered Sonic Sneakers and is now racing alongside his speedy, blue friend.

"Sonic!" He hears his named called out and looks back, skidding to a stop.  
"What, K?" Silver then stops as well, several hundred feet in front of Sonic. He hadn't heard anyone shout anything.

Neither has Amy or Tails. They look in surprise at Koset, who replies, "If I'm wrong, and Wikke _is _there… Do _not_ try to fight him head on. Just...get out of there." With a thumbs up, Sonic turns back around and blasts off with Silver.

And it's at that point that Tails suddenly snaps to reality and shouts, "Hey, wait! You need the... Chaos...Detec..."

"Don't bother, Tails," Amy says. "The way that man works, Sonic probably doesn't need it anyway."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Illi Badlands**

"So, Silver!" Sonic calls out. "How's the future?"

Silver jerks his head back and, with a rather suspicious grin, replies, "Can't tell you just yet."

This slightly interests Sonic a little bit. "What do ya _mean_ you can't tell me just yet?!"

"I'm a time archaeologist, Sonic. I've been here for weeks because I get to go back in time to collect stuff that's been destroyed by then, but part of the job rules strictly states-" Out of nowhere, Silver puts on intellectual glasses and pulls out a heavily decorated-with-painted-symbols, five-thousand-page book while Sonic stands, super deformed and somewhat disturbed, in the background, mouth agape, "-in Article W-23, Subsection 797, Paragraph 9832752, that-" he takes a massive breath in-" '_At no point shall any time archaeologist discuss future events with inhabitants of previous times for any reason, even in matters of life and death_.'"

Sonic, still anime super-deformed, raises his finger to say something, then drops it and continues into the mountains.

Actually, the mountains are still in the distance, but the two are closing in. Most tell the hedgehogs that they're tired and worn, the jagged remains of an old landscape. Dwarfed between them are their smaller brethren who never had the chance to become as tall as their natural skyscraper neighbors. But, quite visibly, even from the hazy distance, there is one particular mountain whose features are very distinctive. Instead of the usual rugged conic shaped most other mountains take, this one has an usual and big pumpkin shaped growth as its peak.

Instead of a peaceful, if out-of-place, existence, the mount is given a far more foreboding appearance by its Jack-O-Lantern design. Each natural cut-out glows a deep and sinister red-orange, illuminated by the lava flows inside.

Sonic and Silver, once reaching the foot of the mountains, stare into their cloud- concealed peaks, their heads immediately set in the direction of Pumpkin Mountain. Complete with a mile high stack of jet black smoke and soot billowing from the top of its head, Pumpkin Mountain looks more like a lollipop on fire than a volcano.

"Where do we start?" Silver asks. "Tails didn't tell us _where_ on Pumpkin Mountain it is, and we kinda bumrushed out faster than he could give us that Chaos Emerald radar."

Sonic raises his hands and shuffles his feet. "Two hands. Two feet. Two eyes. It's called _searching. Look it up._"

"Well, technically, hedgehogs have _one_ ey-"

"_**It doesn't matter.**_"

"Think it's past the mountain by now?" The two hedgehogs already race and sub-sonic speeds up the side of Pumpkin Mountain.

"Naaah."

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

For hours, they search, checking every lava flow. Big ones, small ones, and moderate ones. They check everything that could move a half pound emerald. They consider checking the eyes, nose, and mouth of the mountain. For hours more, they retrace their steps. They know that Tails said it was moving, but they decide to leave no stone unturned. Occasionally, they get burned by jets of erupting steam. Sonic, after propelling himself off of a conveniently placed red spring, nearly landed in a _hot_ spring.

Crickets play symphonies to ease the evening.

Night falls.

Night lives. It begins grinding their nerves. They probably _should _have taken the Chaos Detector with them.

Well past midnight, both hedgehogs are weary enough to believe they are actually seeing a laser shoot from the edge of one horizon into the distant sky afar, barely even visible from their location.

With the backdrop of a thick gibbous moon, Sonic cries out to Silver, "I got it!"

Silver rushes to Sonic, levitating via telekinesis. Upon arriving at Sonic's location, the very top of Pumpkin Mountain, he views the cyan Chaos Emerald, stuck in the middle of a magma pool on a piece of volcanic rock.

"That's great!" Silver cheers. "I never asked- how many emeralds do you already have?"  
"Just one, so we think this makes us and Eggman even."

"How'd it even get up here?" Silver asks. The azure hedgehog shrugs and scratches his head with his finger, at a loss himself. True, the fact the Chaos Emerald is on _top_ of the mountain defies the law of gravity, considering that the emerald had been flowing from mountain to mountain.

While the two are standing on the soft rock, they don't see the truth that they're sinking. The lava bed is collapsing, bringing them with it.

"Now we just have to get back to Tails's workshop and-"

"Hey, Silver."

"Yeah?"

"Are you getting a _sinking_ feeling?"

"Stinking feeling?"

"No, _sinking _feel-"

And at that moment, the tiny lake of lava freefalls into the caldera of the mountain's pumpkin head. Heat overwhelms the hedgehogs as their world turns to black.


	27. History Of Conflict

**Episode 7: A Symbol Of Thrill**

**(27) History of Conflict**

* * *

**Mystic Ruins, Southern Jungle**

**The Following Morning**

Tails has returned to work on the Hurricane, becoming, once again, an odd little shadow under a white sheeted box tinkering away at a sharp angled contraption.

Amy, on the other hand, is outside, enjoying the moment of total sunshine- a rare sight in this new, storm-infested world. With her is Koset, although neither are close to each other. Amy's sitting on the steps to the workshop, waiting for her hero to return. Koset is away from her, sitting Indian style on the roof of the entire structure with his eyes closed.

After a while, Tails walks out, carrying a large rod over his shoulder. Without opening his eyes, he hears Koset talk to him.

"Tails, I need to talk to you and Amy about something." Koset jumps from the roof. Tails rubs his eyes- he's sure Koset was falling to the ground as slow as a feather.

"Shoot," he stutters.

"Your history with Eggman..." Tails chuckles.

"Yeah, we go _waaay_ back."

"I need to know. From the beginning, I mean. Otherwise, nothing will make sense to me."

Tails scratches his chin, considering how everything really began. "Weeeell.. You'll have to go to Sonic for the whole history, but he doesn't like talking about how he and Eggman got their rivalry started that much. I don't think he's even told me, Knuckles, or Mobio."

"Mobio?"

"Yeah, she's one of our oldest friends who lived on Mobius, but she totally disappeared a very long time ago. Before Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, there was Sonic, Tails, and Mobio! I know Sonic's not the type to dwell on the past, but I think he does miss Mobio a lot. She was like his little sister, kinda like how I'm like his little brother." Tails holds up several balls, five in total. They were all different, bright colors, but that color is the same all around, entirely featureless. "These are from her. The first adventure Sonic, Mobio, and me went on as a team against Eggman was to stop him from taking over this place called Christmas Island. Mobio disappeared before we stopped Eggman and left a whole pile of these for us."

"Sonic used one of those to beat Robotnik yesterday, didn't he?" Koset remains silent for a moment as he thinks about this. "Since then, what has Eggman done?"

"Well, I was _pretty _young, but from what I remember, he tried making a base on the top of South Island, which is this pretty weird island thousands of miles away from here," Tails says, using his hands to point out various directions or make gestures describing explosions or the like.

"I'm from there," Koset reinforms, statement put in a question tone.

"Oh, right. After that, he kidnapped me and threatened to destroy me and some other of our old friends if Sonic didn't bring the 7 Chaos Emeralds to him in time. That's the first time, I think, Sonic went Super Sonic."

"Don't forget, he escaped into Mobius and released Metal Sonic, and Sonic had to stop him from getting the Time Stones!" Amy adds.

"That too. Later on, Eggman topped himself many times when he created the Death Eggs I, II, and III, but by that time, Sonic and I already had a whole small army of friends to help!"

"That we've never heard from again," Amy tacks on, voice smacked with disdain and arms pressed against her hips.

"R-right. Yeah, Sonic's a good guy, and that's why he has so many friends. But... heh...we tend to lose track of some of the less connected or more independent ones after a while."

"I see. So what happened after that?"

"Well then Eggman used this water monster, Chaos, to try to take over Station Square, but Chaos turned out to be good at heart. Not even a month after that, he and Shadow nearly had Sonic locked up for life, and we all met on the space colony ARK, and had to stop a fifty year old experiment from crashing itself and the ARK into the Earth. Just a couple weeks after _that_, Metal Sonic had tried to take over the world himse-" Tails stops rambling for a moment. "Are you following any of this?"

"Yes. You're saying he's threatened the world many times before now, but you've always managed to stop him."

"Some of the times he tried taking everything over, the adventures we went on to stop him were actually pretty fun. But other times, everyone, even Eggman himself, barely escaped with our lives. His ego's in the stratosphere and he's ambitious as Sonic is fast and _never _gives up, no matter how many times he loses. Some days, I kinda think that, secretly, Sonic admires him for that reason, but that reason only."

"But I recall Sonic mentioning that he's been inactive for close to half of a year as if it were an uncommon occurrence. Is that normal?" Koset then interrogates.

Tails's answer is as swift as it is plain. "No."

"The last time Eggman stayed outta our lives that long," Amy begins, "was before he tried using Chaos and almost as long again before he built his own planet."

"So you're saying that he only stays out of sight for that long period of time when he's planning something truly enormous," Koset figures.

"You got it!"

"But half a year ago..."

"What's weird is that that's right when Sonic was injured too, and was healing. It's only when he got better and you appeared that Eggman came outta hiding."

"That's not the full truth. Someone else came with me," Koset reminds.

"That's right, that Wikke guy you're always taking about!" Tails responds.

"But I know for a fact that Wikke was only on Earth for less than a week..." Tails and Amy silently gasp, and their eyes open wide. "There's no way they could've planned anything together _that_ quickly. Not unless they'd been-"

"Um, Koset?" The hedgehog in white turns to Amy. "What do you mean? That he's only been on Earth for a week..." Upon being reminded about that, Koset looks like he's seen a ghost.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**Far Northern Illi Badlands**

Knuckles is gliding above the sunset painted landscape, alone and with all five of the shards. He's flying directly away from the Southern Jungle, having split up with Rouge hours ago. As he continues, he's hit by truckloads of doubt. Rouge is a sneak, let there be no mistake about that. In fact, the crimson echidna is now questioning how he let Rouge get under his skin.

Right now, it doesn't matter. She, at the very least, didn't make an attempt to snag the Master Emerald shards, a first for the bat. Rouge is to him what Jynx is to Rouge- an inconvenience.

But speaking of Jynx, that mole is burning a hole in his skewed, and quite possibly underdeveloped, brain. His face, his eyes, his shoes, his hair, his name... It's annoying. It's agitating. He can't _stand_ Jynx. He'll put up with Rouge if it means beating that fantastically ugly hairdo off of Jynx's head sooner than later.

Trying to sense the closest shards of the emerald, he picks up nothing in the immediate area. Pulling to the right, he spots the end to the perpetual sepia and orange of the dusty badlands and the beginning of the greenery of the rolling plains beyond.

Suddenly, he feels the distinctive draw of the Master Emerald. It feels like it's crying. Knuckles sees that the same direction he's feeling this emotional pull is the same one he's flying towards.

He has no clue that, miles behind him, Sonic and Silver are in trouble, and are in danger of being burned by the innards of a volatile volcano.

But many more miles away from that, lying under the lone tree in an expanse of a horizon-to-horizon plain, Rouge's back hits a tree and she falls to the ground. She feels as if she's wasted too much time and doesn't have too good a feeling about Shadow. The greedy bat has never stuck her neck out for someone this much before with no intent on getting paid back. In fact, it's almost heresy to her character.

She's deep within the Southern Jungle, her more able body telling her to rest, while her cloudy mind is telling her to trek on.

Had she had a stronger desire to continue, she would have seen Jynx flying over her, and perhaps, _just perhaps_, history would be different.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


	28. Super Volcano Escape

**Episode 7: A Symbol of Thrill**

**(28) Super-Volcano Escape**

* * *

Groaning. "Awww man! My head..." Sonic's hand rubs across his face, but the hedgehog has to spend a second or two comprehending and orienting that he's actually doing it. Once he's sure he's still in one piece and not jumbled up like a mismatched jigsaw puzzle, he looks over to his side. Silver is still downed. You can almost see the non-existent birds flying around his head. "Sil! Sil, wake up!" He pushes Silver repeatedly before the white hedgehog finally sits upright.

"Ugghh.. Agh, where are we?" The two hedgehogs look up.

"Why does this feel... I don't know, _familiar_?" Sonic rhetorically asks. Above him are earthen red stalactites.

"_Bwaaaa!_" Silver shrieks. Sonic turns around in an instant, seeing the tidal wave of magma that had taken his friend by surprise. Silver throws out his hand, and arcs of rolling telekinetic energy collide with the deadly wave.

Sonic has already somersaulted out of the way, only to get _**crushed**_ by an incredibly hot, falling boulder.

Voice whittled, he cries out, "S-Silver, help!" The many-tons rock is lifted above Sonic almost immediately. Sonic crawls out almost as fast as he can run. He's then hit by a singing heat as the superheated rock breaks upon hitting the ground. "Thanks, Sil."

The white hedgehog squeezes his wrist, tightening his glove. Sweat streaming off of his face, he pants as he says, "Don't mention it."

"We've gotta get outta here before this whole thing blows up on us!" Sonic looks down at the two emeralds resting in his hands then back up at the chaotic scene of an angry volcano about to not erupt but _self-destruct_. "Silver. Think you can keep the magma away from us long enough for me to do this?"

"Do what?"

"Koset showed me a neat, little trick yesterday." Silver looks at the azure hedgehog with interest as Sonic enters a transformation pose. Legs slightly spread out and arms bent, he begins channeling the power of Chaos through his body. In tandem, the two infinitely powerful gems begin glowing their respective red and white colors. The shining glare of the emeralds expands well beyond their borders. Every passing second, it takes up more and more of Sonic's being until one half of his body is glowing a carmine red; the other half is gleaming a semitransparent ivory white.

"_Chaos TransFORM!_" His scream echoes. It is at that moment that the two auras become one and contract, fitting to a basic form of Sonic's body. Both have become a sapphire color. But on top of that, a peculiar green orb has also surrounded Sonic, and in it are deep turquoise electric sparks coming off of his body.

Silver is in awe by this new form. "How'd you do that?"

"Koset never told me, n' I really wanna know." A geyser of magma rips itself out of the caldera. A hellish, fiery rain of magma showers down, its edge barely missing the two hedgehogs. "But this isn't exactly the best time!"

The molten rock actually recedes from one path, opening up a possible escape route. Ultra Sonic and Silver are already halfway across it.

The heat of the magma grabs at their feet and ankles like fire breathing demons. Every step they take is quickly filled in by the ocean of lava. The entire way through, Silver uses his PK, nonstop, to act as a barrier, keeping it all back. What he can't block out, Ultra Sonic uses his chaos energy to blow away.

One thing they both can't keep away is the increasingly toxic nauseous volcanic gases. When Sonic spots an exit to the far end of the caldera, he suddenly realizes he's out of breath, and that the acidic air inside is too dangerous to keep breathing in.

"Silver, if we keep breathing the air, we'll choke on it," he sputters. "And it doesn't look like the volcano is letting up!"

A humongous slab of rock, perhaps a square mile across, breaks off of one of the more distant walls and comes down into the magma like a meteor. Immediately, a tsunami of magma rises and rises and rises and rises until it's well over fifty feet high races towards the heroes.

"Crap!" Silver shouts. He grabs Ultra Sonic's wrist and jumps into the air, high enough to grab one of the stalactites. The tongue of the monstrous magma wave barely licks the tip of his boot. "That was close."

"Look at the ceiling!" Sonic points to the top of the cavern, an arm's length above their heads. Above Ultra Sonic, cracks have appeared and dust and tiny rocks that would have fallen down are suspended in midair, wobbling as if held by string. All around Sonic, the air is thick and wavy. This spectacle only steals their attention for a second. Below them, the lava has massed together, topping over all other features in the caldera to become one singular sea of thousand degree molten rock.

"Sonic, you don't think...You don't think _you're_ causing all this, do you?" Ultra Sonic grabs Silver's hand and, with a grunt, pulls himself up.

"Koset _did _say something about this form releasing tonsa energy..." Sonic checks the r-card. His eyes flare open and nearly slips out of Silver's grasp. "I'm outta rings!"

"And I'm almost out of energy..."

"There's no way I can survive the heat from that in my normal form!"

Silver raises his hand and blows out a hole in the ceiling above. He tosses Sonic into it before making the leap himself. The tiny cavern they've landed in is still exitless, but provides a decent escape. For now.

~oOoOo~

"Two rings... Oh, darn it. I could have sworn the rings didn't zap out that fast! I guess since I'm using two Chaos Emeralds, I must be using up rings twice as fast. If only I even had _half _of one more, I'd have enough energy to get us outta here!"

"Actually, Sonic... I've learned... several new tricks... myself," pants Silver, the fumes taking their toll on the brave hedgehog.

"No, Silver, _no_. You've used too much of your energy, and you've been taking in more of the gases than me. You need to rest." Silver doesn't accept Sonic's suggestions. He clasps his hands together in a prayer/ninjitsu style.

He separates his hands at a snail' pace. As he does, PK blue fires pop up around them. The flames of energy, after his hands are a certain distance apart, rush towards the center and form a ring shape. Floating between Silver's hands is a blue ring!

"That's... _awesome_." Silver hands the ring to Sonic. Then, with one last breath, he collapses to the ground. "Silver?! _**Silver!**_" Sonic frantically tugs at his barely breathing friend.

"Stop wasting time... get us out of here already!" Silver raspily moans, his voice ripped to pieces by fatigue. An ember of fire flies up from the hole. The magma is mere centimeters from reaching them, and they can feel the heat smacking them across their faces already. Ultra Sonic, in this far more powerful form, absorbs the new energy and his aura is given a telekinetic boost.

He stares at the ceiling above his head and, immediately, a circle is blown out of it. Then he turns to Silver. The faint hedgehog is picked up by Sonic's temporary new powers and taken with him as he rushes out of the room.

That isn't the end. Ultra Sonic races through another hallway where stalactites fall from the ceiling and crashing into the ground like scythes coming to reap his soul. The strain of running, carried over from the first form, is further weakened by his holding onto of Silver as well as his own exhaustion.

But he sees the light at the end of the tunnel growing in his eyes. Behind him, the magma gives frantic chase. One misstep now will cost him and Silver their lives. With boulders twice to thrice to ten times his size crushing the ground around him and lakes of lava falling from above, everything that can slow him down, everything that can kill him is trying to.

With a leap from a ledge, Ultra Sonic escapes the magma's deadly grip as it blasts out into the air over his head.

The unadulterated sunshine is his pat on the back for a job well done.

In the nick of time, Ultra Sonic had escaped the confines of an erupting volcano. The pumpkin on Pumpkin Mountain, for lack of a better word, _**EXPLODES**_. The stick of a slope keeping the impossible structure floating above the landscape collapses in on itself and becomes a tube, shooting out lava and volcanic gases miles into the atmosphere while a pyroclastic flow comes down like a plague being released.

Sonic lands as himself unpowered and drops Silver, his legs immediately giving out. The two collapse to the ground, prone, and take in as many breaths of fresh air as they possibly can. Sonic is face down, while Silver is right-side up. One is smiling, chuckling even, thankful for every mile-deep breath of fresh air he's taking, while the other is unconscious, but undoubtably equally as thankful.

~oOoOo~

Wikke senses their distress and smiles. All of the anthro's thoughts, their fears, their determination, he enjoys.

"Robotnik... remember that change of plans I hhhad announced yesterday?" He turns to Eggman after an answer fails to come quickly. "Paying attention? Do you remember my change of plans?" And Eggman snaps to focus.

"Why yes. But I don't see how that changes anything." He strokes his moustache, and he does it with a frown and doubt.

"That commoner hhhedgehog has surpassed all of my expectations. Hhheh. I believe it's about time I called in a 'friend' to deal with the Sonic hhheroes."

Eggman swats his suggestion off. "I didn't take you for the kind to have 'friends'. Besides, there's little chance they'll stop that hedgehog."

Wikke steps back and leans on the end of the Eggmobile. "Heh heh heh... Heh heh heh heh heh hahahahaha! HAAhahaaahaaha!" Eggman looks on, eyes uneven and posture pulled away from the being. He hasn't heard Wikke bellow a classic evil laugh like this during the entire time he's known him. He'd be more impressed if he weren't so pessimistic.

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo

**End of Episode 7**

**A Symbol of Thrill**

OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo~OoOo~OoOoOo~OoOoOoOo~OoOo


End file.
